One of the most astonishing legal euphemisms of all time goes to appeal at the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The case of the rape of American basketball player Illisha Jarrett, the crime for which Josip Mraović was sentenced in Croatia to two years in prison, will soon come before the judges of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Mraović has filed a lawsuit claiming that his right to a fair and public trial had been violated. Since it was a sexual assault case, the court proceedings in Croatia were closed to the public reports Novlist on February 18, 2016.
It is quite extraordinary that Mraović is now complaining that everything was done in private, far from the eyes and ears of journalists, given that at the time the trial took place he kept insulting the very same journalists. During the trial, he argued that his conviction was the result of the pressure of politics and the media.
Mraović was arrested on 16 April 2005, on suspicion of rape. A rather strange investigation was started in Gospić, where Mraović was quite an influential figure back then. Due to the suspicion of irregularities, ten days later the case was taken from the authorities in Gospić and transferred to the prosecution authorities in Rijeka.
In early December 2005, the court in Gospić ruled that Mraović was not guilty of rape, causing scandal with its explanation that “poking a finger in the anus of a person is the same as handshaking”. The media immediately called this “the Lika Handshake”, given that Gospić is the centre of the Lika region.
The Supreme Court in December 2006 repealed the scandalous verdict and ordered a new trial in Rijeka. The Rijeka court came to a completely different conclusion and on 7 February 2008 Mraović was found guilty of rape of the basketball player and sentenced to three years in prison. Mraović later appealed to the Supreme Court which changed his sentence to two years in prison.
However, Mraović was still not satisfied with the outcome so he filed another appeal, this time to the Constitutional Court for alleged violation of his human rights. The Supreme Court has rejected his case and so now he has decided to complain to the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.
