On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg announced its decision on the case brought by the fugitive, convicted Croatian football mogules Zdravko and Zoran Mamic against Croatia.

The application was also filed by Milan Pernar, a tax official who was on trial with the Mamic brothers. He has since passed away, but his heirs are continuing the lawsuit.

On Thursday, the ECtHR dismissed Mamic’s application.

Details of the decision can be found HERE.

“Although the first and second applicants’ conduct which constituted abuse directly concerned only one of several complaints under Article 6 of the Convention communicated to the respondent Government (see paragraphs 75-78 above), the Court considers that their behaviour which was aimed at manipulating and seriously obstructing the justice system and taking advantage of the system of protection of human rights under the Convention in order to benefit from their own abusive conduct at domestic level (see paragraphs 138-139 above) should have implications for the admissibility of their entire applications (compare Safaryan v. Armenia (dec.), no. 16346/10, §§ 20-21 and 30, 14 January 2020),” as stated, inter alia, in the ECtHR’s decision.

Zdravko Mamic corrupted the judges

As N1 journalist Ana Raic explained, the ECtHR followed the same reasoning as the Croatian Constitutional Court.

“The Mamic brothers claimed that their right to a fair trial was violated because, according to Mamic, the judges were in contact with him. Judge Darko Kruslin received a watch from Zdravko Mamic, which is why Mamic claimed that this judge was not impartial,” Raic explained, recalling that Kruslin quickly returned the watch.

“What the ECtHR has now said is the same as the Constitutional Court, namely that Zdravko Mamic himself corrupted the judges involved in the case, which means that he gave the watch to judge Kruslin, and ultimately the judge’s guilt has not yet been proven, which is a crucial argument. The Mamic brothers themselves approached the judges and sought preferential treatment,” Raic added.

It is not necessary to discuss the possible bias

She emphasises that the ECtHR has now established that the Mamic brothers tried to influence the judiciary and that it is therefore not necessary to discuss the possible bias and lack of impartiality of the judges who handled the case.

The President of the Croatian Constitutional Court, Miroslav Separovic, declined to comment on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the Mamic case. In this case, the European Court of Human Rights has almost adopted the same reasoning as the Croatian Constitutional Court.

“For us, this is a case like any other,” Separovic briefly stated..

As a reminder, the Mamic brothers had claimed that the Croatian courts had violated their right to a fair trial during the first trial in Osijek for the embezzlement of funds from the Dinamo football club and during the appeal proceedings.