Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.21857/yl4okflwz9
Legal proceedings against Dr Ivan Protulipac, president of the Crusaders before the District Court in Zagreb on june 15, 1938
Zdravko Matić
orcid.org/0000-0003-0552-9926
; Croatian Defence Academy „Dr. Franjo Tuđman“, Zagreb, Croatia
Damir Stručić
; Croatian Defence Academy „Dr. Franjo Tuđman“, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Following the ban on the Union of Croatian Eagles, Dr Ivan Protulipac and his associates in January 1929 sought a way to establish a new Catholic organization that would have continuity in the Union of Croatian Eagles, which he and Dr Ivan Merz had founded in 1923. Immediately after the founding of the Crusaders in January 1930, Dr Protulipac was subjected to severe pressure from the police authorities of the regime and arrested on January 27, 1930. He was arrested and taken to the police station where the investigation lasted all day—the minutes taken by the police talk about the nature and character of Dr Protulipac's arrest. He was accused of wanting to set up "exercise" societies despite the ban. The procedure was carried out pursuant to Law on the Protection of the State, under which he was arrested and the court proceedings conducted before the Zagreb County Court under the number Kzp. 606-30, dated January 27, 1930, but the case was dismissed, and Dr Protulipac acquitted. In January of the same year, the first issue of the monthly magazine "Križ" was published with an article by Dr Ivan Protulipac outlining the Crusaders' programme, which was entitled "In the sign of the cross" and again the police regime acted promptly. Besides the authors, they also looked for the members of the editorial board and the consortium of the company. Yet criminal proceedings were instituted against him. The same article actually contained all those ideas that Dr Protulipac had been propagating through his twenty years of public activity. It was because of the piece of the same name that he was indicted under the Law on State Protection and in the case before Cr. Court of First Instance dated January 13, 1931, the proceedings were instituted. However, on appeal to Cr. court table, in Zagreb District Court, no. Kps 427/31, the counter-insider and his comrades were acquitted of all charges because the Court could not find anything illegal. Despite the continued persecution to which he was exposed as President of the Grand Crusaders, Dr Protulipac did not give up his intention to work for the interests of the youth and the Catholic Church. He wanted everything created by Dr Ivan Merz and that he worked on until his death in May 1928, to continue living through the generations of Catholic youth and the Crusaders for which he lived. With his inspirational speech to numerous Catholic youth at the Eucharistic Congress on August 22, 1937, in Bosanski Brod, he again became the subject of an investigation by the regime authorities. He was arrested and charged with the criminal offence referred according to Article 3 of the Law on the Protection of the State of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. For that offence, the State Prosecutor requested a five-year sentence. However, this time, like all the previous Dr Protulipac was persistent in proving the truth for which he was fighting. Despite the regime's witnesses testifying against him, the Court found no element for prosecution and conviction and he was again acquitted of all charges. In all his public appearances, Dr Protulipac was a visionary, a man of faith and a man for the faith and his fellowmen. Even today, his words spoken on the Pope's Day in 1936 are still relevant. '' Let us be convinced that the happy future, ours and that of the Croatian people comes first by the grace of the almighty good God. In vain are our efforts and sacrifices if we do not build with God. "
Keywords
Ivan Protulipac; PhD; District Court; hearing; Crusaders; trial; judgment
Hrčak ID:
248505
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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