'Zvonko Bušić (Taik) (born in Gorica, Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1946), is a Croatian emigrant is most known for the hijacking of TWA Flight 355 in 1976, and his sentencing for "air piracy".
Biography
editZvonko Bušić was born in 1946 in Gorica, a village in Hercegovina, and finished high school in Imotski, where he got the nickname Taik, by which all the local people know him. He graduated in Zagreb, and emigrated at the age of 20 to Vienna in order to study Slavistics and History at the University. In Vienna, three years later, in 1969, he met the American student, Julienne Eden Schultz, who was studying German there and who soon thereafter became involved in the activities of the Croatian emigration. In coordination with Zvonko Bušić, she and a girlfriend traveled to Zagreb and threw anti-Yugoslav leaflets from a skyscraper on Republic Square (now Ban Jelačić Square), after which they were arrested and imprisoned[1]. After release, Julienne returned to Vienna and in 1972, Julienne and Zvonko married in Frankfurt. Later they moved to the U.S.
Hijacking
editA group of Croatian political activists comprised of Zvonko and Julienne Bušić, Petar Matanić, Frane Pešut and Slobodan Vlašić hijacked a commercial TWA plane on September 10, 1976, Boeing 727, Flight 355, heading from New York to Chicago[2]. Their intention was to throw leaflets from the plane over London and Paris, in which they explained the Croatian struggle in then Yugoslavia and called for her independence in a leaflet "Call to dignity and freedom" ("Poziv na dostojanstvo i slobodu")[3]. The ultimate destinations were Zagreb and Solin. The only goal of the hijacking was to force the American and European press to print the leaflet detailing the truth about abuses of the Croatian nation in Yugoslavia[2].
They carried no weapons on the plane, only materials from which they fashioned fake explosives they wrapped around their bodies[2]. Real explosives were left behind in an isolated subway station locker, and all information about them were passed on by Zvonko Bušić to the pilot, who forwarded it to the authorities in New York. After their leaflet was published, the airplane landed in Paris and the hijackers surrendered..
However, during efforts to deactivate the explosives four hours later at the detonation site, American policeman Brian Murray died, and three other officers were wounded[2].
Trial and imprisonment
editZvonko and Julienne Bušić were charged with and convicted of air piracy resulting in death, which carried a mandatory life sentence with parole eligibility after 10 years[2]. For reasons that are not fully understood, Zvonko Busic served a total of 32 years in federal prisons, 19 years longer than Julienne Bušić, who was convicted of the same crime.
During sentencing, the trial judge John Bartels stated on the record that he did not consider Bušić "a terrorist or a criminal" and that although his methods were wrong, his action was motivated by noble ideals; that is, Croatian independence[2] The judge also pointed out that the harm that had come to others was entirely unintentional, and recommended that Bušić be released after serving ten years. Three years after the trial, Bartels reduced the sentence to category B2, which made both Bušićs eligible for immediate parole. Judge Bartels also wrote several letters on Bušić behalf during subsequent parole hearings, in which he emphasized repeatedly that the death of the police officer was unintentional and that Bušić should not serve more than 10 years[4][5][6][7][8].
The widow of the policeman filed a lawsuit against the responsible police bodies for "gross negligence" and criticized their efforts to shift the blame to Bušić and portray her husband as a victim of "terrorists"[9][10]. She argued that the police supervisor placed the officers under his command at unnecessary risk by attempting to disassemble the device while ignoring safety procedures, rather than simply detonating it remotely.
According to statements by former White House employees, the Yugoslav government applied strong and successful pressure on the State Department to punish Zvonko and his group to the harshest possible degree by denying parole beyond the trial judge's recommendation[11]. Partly in response to this revelation, at a Croatian Parliament session in 2002, a resolution was passed to request transfer of Zvonko Bušić to Croatia, which was forwarded to the Council of Europe[12][13].
Although Croatia had gained its independence in the meantime, that did not change the position of the State Department, who continued to support Zvonko's incarceration. His request for parole was denied in 2006, after service of 30 years, although the others in the group had already been free for at least 17 years[14]. Julienne Bušić was released in 1989.
Bušić was transferred suddenly in 2006 to a Homeland Security deportation center from which he was to have been deported home. From that point, the Croatian Helsinki Watch began to actively lobby for his transfer, convinced that the denial of parole after the maximum thirty years constituted a violation of Bušić's human rights[15], and noting that it is also a violation of U.S. law to hold an inmate with a life sentence beyond 30 years absent extraordinary circumstances[16][17].
Bušić spent his last two years at the Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Terre Haute, Indiana, transferred there from Allenwood, Pennsylvania[18].
The former unit had served as a death row, and was renovated to receive so-called second tier terrorists, "most of them Arab Muslims, whose ability to communicate with the outside world has been tightly restricted", wrote the Washington Post on 2007-02-25. Phone and letters were also monitored and limited, visits decreased to four hours a month, and all communication was to be in the English language only[19]. The only non-Muslim prisoners were one unidentified Colombian militant, and Bušić.
Zvonko Bušić was granted parole in late July of 2008, after 32 years, and turned over to the immigration authorities for deportation[20][21]. He is not allowed re-entry into the U.S.
Return to Croatia
editZvonko Bušić returned on July 24, 2008, in the custody of U.S. Marshals, and was greeted at the airport as a patriot[22]. Among those at the airport were Drazen Budisa, former Vice President of the government and former president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, Dr. Slobodan Lang, former Presidential adviser, several past members of Parliament, and hundreds of friends and relatives from throughout the world. Several days later, a welcome celebration was held for Bušić in Imotski and his home village of Gorica.
External links
editReferences
edit- ^ http://www.avsec.com/interviews/busic.htm
- ^ a b c d e f http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/592/13/258617/ Second Circuit Court of Appeals Decision
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/engb2.asp
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/b4.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/b2.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/b1.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/b3.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/b1.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/m1.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/m2.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/t15.doc
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic/dokumenti/p2.doc
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/hp6.doc
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic.com/dokumenti/k5.pdf
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic/dokumenti/p5.doc
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic/dokumenti/k9.doc
- ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/uspc/rules_procedures/rulesmanual.htm
- ^ Facility Holding Terrorism Inmates Limits Communication, Washington Post 2007-02-25
- ^ http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/prison/limitedcommunications20060605.pdf
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/nyregion/19parole.html
- ^ http://www.zvonkobusic/dokumenti/K6.pdf
- ^ http://www.javno.com/en-croatia/joy-flowers-and-tears-for-hijacker-busics-return_166874