Krešimir Ivančić

Zdravko Ivančić, Krešimir's father, was taken and killed in 1994 near Daruvar by Serbian army members. Trials for this war crime has not been held, because defendants were unreachable to Croatian judiciary. Krešimir and his sister have to repay the state 430,000 kuna. The Republic of Croatia Supreme Court issued a verdict saying they did not have the right to compensation for damages incurred by their father's death, which was paid to them in 2008.


Zdravko Ivančić was killed during a terrorist action on May 11, 1994. Around 9 pm, members of Serbian paramilitary units armed with automatic weapons started off from temporary occupied territories. After arriving to the village of Vukovje, they intersected Zdravko Ivančić and seven other people and, while threatening them with weapons, tied their hands with barbed wire and took them to Batinjska Rijeka, where some of them were killed. Three prisoners survived the crime.

On July 14, 1994, the Bjelovar district court raised an indictment against suspects for the crime in Batinjska Rijeka, the criminal act of terrorism. On October 12, 1996, legal qualification of the indictment was changed into criminal act of war crime against civilians. The trial never took place, because the defendants are unreachable to Croatian judiciary.

The injured party's family attorney filed a criminal suit to the Republic of Serbia Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor against persons for whom there was reasonable doubt that they had committed this criminal offence. The Republic of Serbia Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, during June 2011, asked the Bjelovar District Attorney's Office transcripts of the criminal case file in order to start criminal proceedings against persons residing on the Republic of Serbia territory.

In January 2012, the Republic of Croatia State Attorney's Office informed the family that it was ready to hand over files to colleagues in Serbia. The Republic of Serbia Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor sent in February 2012 a memo to Zdravko Ivančić's family informing them that they had still not received an answer from the Republic of Croatia State Attorney's Office to their request to send parts of the case files.

In July 2006, children of the killed Zdravko Ivančić, Krešimir Ivančić and Štefica Dželalija, started a court proceeding asking for non-material damage compensation. The Bjelovar district court confirmed in 2008 the first-instance judgement of the county court in Daruvar, deciding that Krešimir Ivančić and his sister should be paid 105,000 kuna each.

In March 2010, the Republic of Croatia Supreme Court overturned the Daruvar and Bjelovar courts' decisions and rejected the claim, due to the statute of limitation of the civil proceeding. After that, the defendants filed a constitutional complaint to the Republic of Croatia Constitutional Court.

On December 30, 2010, the county court in Daruvar, on the basis of the County State Attorney's Office request, reached a verdict that the injured parties had to pay the Republic of Croatia back the money they received as compensation, as well as court expenses. The injured parties complained to the verdict.

Krešimir Ivančić and his sister, eighteen years after the crime committed in Batinjska Rijeka near Daruvar, despite surviving witnesses and known perpetrators of their father's murder, are still suffering negative consequences of a non-functional criminal proceeding and long-term court proceeding, on the basis of which they are required to pay back the money they received as compensation for damages, to pay court expenses, as well as to pay interest. That amount, at this moment, is as high as 430.000 kuna and is defined by an extra-judicial agreement between the victim's family representative and the Republic of Croatia, as represented by the Bjelovar county state attorney's office. The agreement is a degrading state legal document, directed straight at the interest of victims' families with a clear warning to all those victims who have not yet sought compensation not to do it.