Croatia denies prominent writer could be jailed
AFP
ZAGREB- Croatia's top court on Tuesday rejected claims that an intellectual who accused nationalist writers of bearing responsibility for the 1990s wars that accompanied the break up of the former Yugoslavia could go to jail.
Predrag Matvejevic was prosecuted for libel over the article entitled "Our Taliban" and sentenced to a five-month jail term suspended for two years.
In May, Croatia's Supreme Court upheld the original verdict, prompting French intellectual Bernard-Henry Levy, backed by about a dozen other European thinkers, to publish an open letter in the French paper Le Monde earlier this month calling on Croatia not to allow Matvejevic's imprisonment.
But Croatia's Supreme Court dismissed the claims.
"Since all legal deadlines have expired.... there is no possibility (for Predrag Matvejevic) to serve a jail term," a court statement said.
Bosnia-born Matvejevic, a writer and political activist, was a French literature lecturer at Zagreb University until 1991. He later moved to France and now teaches in Italy.
His book "Mediterranean Breviary" became a best-seller and has been translated into more than 20 languages.
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But Croatia's Supreme Court dismissed the claims.
"Since all legal deadlines have expired.... there is no possibility (for Predrag Matvejevic) to serve a jail term," a court statement said.
Bosnia-born Matvejevic, a writer and political activist, was a French literature lecturer at Zagreb University until 1991. He later moved to France and now teaches in Italy.
His book "Mediterranean Breviary" became a best-seller and has been translated into more than 20 languages.
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