Ante Jelavić (born 21 August 1963) is a Bosnian Croat politician who served as the

Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina The chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the presiding member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which collectively serves as head of state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Željka Cvijanović has been the incumbent office ...

from 1999 to 2000. He was elected to the post of chairman as a candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union.

Presidency (1998–2001)

Jelavić served as

from 15 June 1999 until 14 February 2000. He was removed from his position of the three-member

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

by decision of the

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bos ...

Wolfgang Petritsch Wolfgang Petritsch (born 26 August 1947) is an Austrian diplomat of Slovene ethnicity. Between 1999 and 2002 Petritsch served as the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Early life and studies Petritsch was born to a C ...

, in March 2001. Petritsch justified his decision by observing that Jelavić had "directly violated the constitutional order of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Bosnia and Herzegovina"; in particular he cited Jelavić's leading role in the '

Croatian National Assembly The Croatian National Assembly ( hr, Hrvatski narodni sabor) is a political organisation of Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation serves as a platform to coordinate political and cultural activities of different part ...

' rally in

Mostar , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Mostar (collage image).jpg , image_caption = From top, left to right: A panoramic view of the heritage town site and the Neretva river from Lučki Bridge, Koski Mehmed Pasha ...

on 3 March 2001, calling for a separate governing entity for Bosnian Croats.

Investigations and indictments

On 22 January 2004, Jelavić was arrested in his home in

, on charges of corruption. On 4 November 2005, the

Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina :''This article refers to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a domestic court which includes international judges and prosecutors and a section for war crimes; it should not be confused with the separate International Criminal Tribunal for the For ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

found Jelavić guilty of abuse of office, embezzlement of office, and lack of commitment in office. The findings of guilt related, in part, to the use of funds from the

Federal Ministry of Defence The Federal Ministry of Defence (german: Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, ), abbreviated BMVg, is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at ...

to purchase shares in banking and insurance firms Hercegovačka Banka and Herzegovina Osiguranje. Judge Malcolm Simmons presided, A sentence of ten years imprisonment was subsequently pronounced, although Jelavić was not present at the sentencing hearing and remained at large. His attorney, Dragan Barbarić, acting in his client's absence, initiated a successful appeal against the first instance verdict on the grounds that it lacked proper factual description of the offence and as such was in violation of criminal procedural law. On 4 July 2006, with the verdict revoked, the appeal panel, presided over by Judge Nedžad Popovac, called for new proceedings in which evidence presented at the first trial will be re-presented and in which new evidence may also be presented.Case KPŽ-47/05
sudbih.gov.ba; accessed 13 August 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jelavic, Ante 1963 births Living people People from Vrgorac Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians Politicians of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Chairmen of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina