Australian court finds reasonable doubt in the Croatian Six case

According to many Croats who grew up in Australia during the trial they were frequently harassed at school, and regularly questioned: "Do you have a bomb in your bag?" The response was an undercurrent of political graffiti "Free the Croatian 6" throughout the City of Sydney, including on the toll road to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

An Australian judicial inquiry has found "reasonable doubt" regarding the convictions of three members of the so-called "Croatian Six" (Ilija Kokotović, Joseph Kokotović, and Mile Nekić). The 2026 report published on July 6th identified procedural irregularities and police misconduct in the 1981 terrorism trial, referring their cases back to the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal, which must decide whether to overturn the convictions of the three men.

The Croatian Six (which also consisted of Max Bebić, Vic Brajković and Tony Zvirotić) were six Croatian-Australian men sentenced to 15 years jail in 1981 for a conspiracy to bomb several targets in Sydney. The trial was one of the longest in Australian legal history, spanning 172 days in court and with testimony from 111 witnesses. An appeal against the convictions and sentences failed, and the men were subsequently imprisoned for 10 years before being released in 1991.

Subsequent media investigations, such as for the ABC's Four Corners program and The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, indicated that swaths of the evidence the verdict was based on had been fabricated and that the men were set up as part a sting operation by the notorious Yugoslav foreign intelligence service, UDBA. Intelligence sources later confirmed that Dr. Georgi Trajkovski, the Yugoslav Consul General in Melbourne, was a UDBA operative and a key player in setting-up the Croatian Six. Disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson, one of the arresting officers, later admitted that planting evidence during the 1970s and 80s was part of police culture. Furthermore, Australian investigative journalist Chris Masters revealed in 1991 that chief witness of the case, known by the name of Vice Vrkez, was actually UDBA's agent Vitomir Misimović, who infiltrated in Croatian community in Australia.

The new developments uphold the long-held belief of the Croat community in Australia, that the entire case was a classic smear campaign (carried out with the willing complicity of certain members of the Australian "intelligence" services and police in 1981), with the aim of defaming Croats in Australia - especially those who were advocating for an independent Croatia.

Source: HRT