Croat Imprisoned 18 Years Longer Than Others In US

Under the influence of the powerful Serbian lobby, the USA has not answered pleas or petitions of numerous Croatian immigrants.

The US Federal Amnesty Commission has decided to free Croatian emigrant Zvonko Busic under the condition he never returns to the USA and that Croatian authorities take over further control of his parole.

Zvonko Busic, known as Taik, was the leader of a group of five who hijacked a Boeing 747 of the TWA airline on September 10, 1976. Busic hijacked the Chicago-bound plane from New York with his wire Julienne and three friends

With this act, they wanted to make the American media publish the truth on Croatian sufferings in Yugoslavia, throwing out flyers, reading “Call to fight against Serbian hegemony”. The five wanted to fly above Croatia, Solin to be more precise, where the celebration of 8 centuries of Christianity in Croatia was taking place.

Appeal against Great Serbian aggression

It was an appeal to the Croatian people with which he wanted to show that there is a possibility of struggle and liberation against the Great Serbian repression.

But, the basic objective of the hijack was to make American media run publish Busic`s flyers which included the truth on Serbian abuse of the Croatian people in Yugoslavia. They did not take any weapons onboard, or explosives, but left a bomb in New York to create an impression that they had weapons aboard the plane and make the American authorities print the “liberation flyers”.

Although they left behind instructions for the bomb to be deactivated at the airport, an explosion occurred, killing one US officer as it was unprofessionally tackled.

The hijacking ended with the five abductors handing themselves over to the Paris police.

Judge handed down 10 years in prison to Busic

At the trial to Busic`s hijacking group, the judge said that Busic was not a terrorist, nor a criminal, and that his actions were motivated by a noble cause, i.e. Croatian independence. The judge also determined that the harm of others was completely unintentional and asked for Busic to be released on parole, after a 10-year prison sentence.

It is obvious that the US police wanted to spread panic and fear of “terrorists” at the time, perhaps guided by Goebbels` theory on terrorism, from the fact that the wife of the killed police officer started a court process against the authoritative police bodies because of their neglect and she condemned their willingness to shift the blame on to Busic, depicting her husband as a victim of “horrible terrorists”.

Relentless Serbian lobby kept Busic in prison

The Yugoslav government, which is no strange thing, pressured the US State Department to act severe with Busic and his group.

In the meantime, Croatia became an independent republic, but this has not changed the way the US State Department behaves and its diligence to keep Busic behind bars, although the remaining convicts were released in 1990.

A Committee was founded in 1994 called “We are all with Taik”, to the initiative of Tihomir Busic and Julienne Eden Busic, Zvonko`s wife. The committee resulted in a petition of Croats in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Diaspora. In the end, the petition was signed by several hundreds of thousand Croatia throughout the world, along with other prominent people and Nobel prize winners, who saw injustice was caused.

The petition was signed by the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and the majority of politicians and officials.

At the time, Croatia was already a signee of the bilateral contract of relocating prisoners, based on which foreign citizens in American prisons can serve sentences in their homeland in order to be closer to their family.

Busic applied for a transfer, but was turned down, as did his previous efforts for release on parole. Anyway, powerful Serbian lobby in the USA won, and the other reason for an unenviable relation of US authorities towards Busic was his escape from prison in 1986, when he protested against the way the American justice treated his wife in prison (in 1979, Julienne Busic was attacked by US president Gerald Ford`s assassin, Lynette Fromme, in prison).

Association of American Croats reopened the issue of Zvonko Busic

After years of failure, Croatian ambassador in the USA at the time, Miomir Zuzul, stood a chance of succeeding in releasing Zvonko Busic, but as he withdrew from diplomacy, that chance fell through. The Croatian authorities, after Zuzul and the departure of Bill Clinton stagnated again, concerning Busic`s freedom.

The Association of American Croats has forwarded a letter to the prime minister in 2000, President Stjepan Mesic and the Croatian media, requesting Croatia to again raise the issue of Busic`s release. During his visit to the USA, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic spoke with Julienne Busic and started negotiations with the American authorities, but Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic did not manage to deliver due to illness. After that, newly-appointed Minister Tonino Picula submitted a request for amnesty, but the US Justice Department smoothly rejected it, characterising it as adulation to the Association of American Croats.

The Croatian Parliament has passed a resolution on 2003 on the transfer of Zvonko Busic, which was submitted to the Council of Europe. It is believed that this resolution was a precedent in the most famous Croatian immigrant acquiring freedom.

Busic was transferred to deportation detention of the American Ministry of Homeland Security in 2006, which is where he was supposed to have been deported from. Since then, the Croatian Helsinki Committee started fighting for his release, but Busic waited for his freedom until now.

US Concedes Amnesty to Zvonko Busic After 32 Years