Vatican Insider: On 22 July Zagreb Country Court issued a sentence of great historical and political importance, announcing the complete annulment of a sentence against the archbishop of Zagreb, Aloysius Stepinac. In 1946, the archbishop was sentenced to sixteen years of forced labour on charges of collaborating with the Ustaše regime of the NDH, the Independent State of Croatia which was backed by Germany and Italy during World War II. He was also accused of giving his seal of approval and active support to the slaughter of Serbians, Jews and Roma people by Ustaše militants across the country and especially in the Jasenovac concentration camp. Stepinac is said to have died in 1960 while under house arrest in his home town of Kraši?, near Zagreb, as a result of various attempts to poison him when he was in prison. Full report is here.
