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Ustasa leader Ante Pavelic (lleft) shaking hands with Alojzije Stepinac. Photo: Wikipedia

A panel of judges at Zagreb County Court on Friday annulled the verdict convicting Croatian WWII Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, arguing that he did not get a fair trial under the Yugoslav Communist regime.

“The judgement grossly violates both the former and current principles of the criminal law such as the right to a fair trial, the prohibition of forced labour and [the right to] an explanation of the decision and the right to appeal,” presiding judge Ivan Turudic said in his decision.

“The goal [of the verdict] was revenge against Stepinac,” Turudic added.

As Archbishop of Zagreb during the war, Stepinac was close to the wartime authorities of the Nazi-allied puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia, NDH, which was led by the Ustasa movement, had racially-discriminatory laws and was responsible for large-scale atrocities against Serbs, Jews and Roma.

In 1946, the Yugoslav Supreme Court sentenced Stepinac to 16 years in prison for collaborating with Nazi Germany and fascist Italian occupiers, as well as with the NDH.

He was also found guilty of forcing Orthodox believers to be baptised as Catholics, helping the Ustasa regime and “spreading enemy propaganda” after the war ended in May 1945.

The demand for a review of the case against him was filed on July 15 by his nephew, Boris Stepinac, who attended the court hearing on Friday.

“I’m very moved, I didn’t expect it would be resolved so quickly. I thank the Croatian judiciary for finally removing the stain which for years was not only put on the cardinal, but on the Catholic Church, the family, and the whole Croatian nation as well,” Boris Stepinac told news portal Index afterwards.

“Today, documents and arguments proved that he was indeed a righteous man,” he added.

Judge Turudic said that Stepinac refused a state pardon and served his prison sentence, asking instead for the trial to be held again or the verdict to be annulled.

“After 70 years the will of Cardinal Stepinac has been fulfilled by a free court of the Republic of Croatia,” he concluded.

The state attorney’s office said it will not appeal against the court’s decision.

Stepinac has long been a figure whose legacy caused friction between Croatia and Serbia.

The Serbian Orthodox Church accuses him of failing to condemn atrocities against Serbs and Jews in Croatia during the war and he remains a hate figure in Serbia.

In Croatia, by contrast, Catholics revere his memory and have long campaigned for him to be proclaimed a saint, helped by the Croatian government.

But Stepinac’s canonisation was halted by Pope Francis, who proposed that a joint commission involving the Vatican and the Orthodox Church examine the case. The commission started work last week.