The Agram Trial or Zagreb Trial (known as the "High treason trial" in Serbo-Croatian, veleizdajnički proces) was the 1909 show trial of 53 ethnic Serbs in Zagreb, Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary) for high treason. The accused were members of the Serb Independent Party (SSS), who were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the state and place Croatia-Slavonia under Serbian rule. The trial attracted huge attention and criticism from all over Europe. It was highly politicized and the government hoped to use the trial to discredit the Croat-Serb Coalition that won majority in the 1908 Croatian parliamentary election, and to justify the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the trial and after it, it became clear that the accusations were false and that the evidence against the accused was falsified. Nevertheless, 31 of the accused Serbs were convinced and sentenced to prison terms. The scandal became a public disaster for the government of Austria-Hungary. All of the accused appealed their convictions, and the appellate court ordered a re-trial. After that, in 1910, emperor Franz Joseph I pardoned all of the accused.
Background In January 1908, Pavao Rauch was named Ban of Croatia-Slavonia by the Austrian emperor and Hungarian king Franz Joseph I. Croatia-Slavonia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary which was itself part of Austria-Hungary. Previous ban, Aleksandar Rakodczay dissolved the previous convocation of the Croatian Sabor (Parliament) and scheduled fresh elections for February 1908. Rauch supported government-backed candidates, but the 1908 Croatian parliamentary election returned surprising results. Not a single government-backed candidate was elected, and the majority of seats was won by the Croat-Serb Coalition. The new convocation was to held its first session in March 1908, but Rauch postponed it indefinitely. In an interview, Rauch said the Croat-Serb Coalition wants to destroy Austria-Hungary and that the main proponents of this policy is the Serb Independent Party (SSS), part of the Coalition. Rauch and his government started a smear campaign against the SSS and its leaders. This campaign was supported by the anti-Serb Pure Party of Rights.
On 10 April 1908, a group of 18 members of the parliament from the SSS wrote an open letter to Rauch. In the latter, they called on Rauch to sue them in court and to prove his accusations against the SSS. Rauch stepped back and said that he will not sue the SSS, trying to defuse the situation. In another letter, dated 15 April, SSS MPs wrote that Rauch's refusal to sue them in court is a proof that his previous accusations against them were "lies, slanders and denunciations". After counseling with Hungarian Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle, Rauch intensified his campaign against SSS members and started to collect evidence against them.
Arrests and indicment On 7 August 1908, Adam Pribićević, county clerk from Pregrada, was arrested. A day later, his brother Valerijan Pribićević, professor at the Orthodox Clerical High School in Karlovci, was arrested too. They were taken into custody of the county court in Zagreb. After that, investigative judge Mirko Košutić and public prosecutor Milan Accurti started their "traitor hunt" across Croatia-Slavonia. They collected evidence against members of the SSS and at the same time collected witnesses of the prosecution, mainly supporters of the Pure Party of Rights. Those investigations, that lasted until the end of the year, resulted in dozens of Serbs being arrested and taken to detention of the Zagreb court. Although the Law mandated that every arrested person should be subject to hearing during investigation, none of them were interrogated. In November, some of the arrested Serbs started hunger strike demanding to be interrogated and formally indicted. This strike was suspended after eleven days, but in December, all of the arrested started hunger strike. This strike was suspended only after they were given assurances that the indictment will be filed before 15 January 1909.
On 12 January 1909, the prosecutor filed indictment against 53 persons. All of them were accused of being members of an organized conspiracy that sought to secede Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia and Bosnia from Austria-Hungary and annex them to Serbia, in coordination with the organization Slovenski jug (Slavic south) from Belgrade. Thus, they were all accused of high treason, which was punishable by capital punishment. Pribićević brothers, Joco Oreščanin, Pero Bekić, Simo A. Živković were accused as the main leaders of the organization. The court also asked the Sabor to waive parliamentary immunity for Svetozar Pribićević, Budo Budisavljević, Jovan Banjanin, Dr Bogdan Stojanović, Dr Milenko Marković and Dr Dušan Peleš, so that they can be arrested too. But, the Sabor never had a single session during Rauch's tenure, so their immunity could not be waived.
As the indictment was unprecise and full of inconsistencies, all of the accused filed appeals against the indictment to the Table of Seven. Those appeals were promptly dismissed. The prosecutor sought capital punishment for all of the accused. The start of the trial was scheduled for 3 March 1909. During the whole trial, the accused were held in the detention under harsh circumstances.
Trial The trial started on 3 March 1909 with the testimony of the accused. It attracted attention of media, some 20 foreign correspondents were present as well as numerous Austro-Hungarian journalists. Judicial panel was made up of five judges, presided by Josip Tarabokia. Prosecution was led by public prosecutor Accurti and his deputy Ivo Stožir. Defense was made up of 38 attorneys, led by Hinko Hinković. After reading the indictment, all accused stated that they did not understand the indictment because it did not contain precise crimes, nor precise evidence. Also, most of them did not even hear about the organization Slovenski jug they were accused of coordinating with.
The whole trial was marked by judge's biased attitude against the accused. This led to frequent aggressive conflicts between the judges and prosecution, on one side, and the accused and their attorneys on the other side. Also, conflicts between the accused and prosecution witnesses were frequent. The court often imposed disciplinary penalties against the accused. The largest such incident happened on 5 April when all the accused were excluded from the proceedings on 8 days, while Adam Pribićević and Bekić were sentenced to 24 hours of solitary confinement.
On 24 April, examination of prosecution witnesses commenced. Many of them retracted their statements given in the investigation and claimed that their statements were written not by them, but by Košutić. Their testimonies were conflicting and often unhelpful for the prosecution. The main prosecution witness was . Nastić was previously member of Slovenski jug while living in Belgrade, and already testified in the Cetinje trial against the members of the Montenegro's People's Party, whom he accused of plotting with Serbia to overthrow Montenegrin monarchy. It was already known at the time that Nastić was paid by the Montenegrin government for this testimony. Before he testified at the Agram trial, Nastić consulted with Rauch. In April 1911, members of the SSS published documents that proved that Nastić was paid and instructed by the government for his testimony at the trial. Nastić himself sold those documents to the Serbian government in 1910 when he ran out of money.
In the closing arguments, the prosecutor stood by the accusation against all of the accused, but decided to seek capital punishment only against Adam and Valerijan Pribićević, Pero Bekić, Joco Oreščanin and Simo A. Živković as the main leaders of the conspiracy, and prison terms between 10 and 20 years for the others. The defense attorneys dismissed the charges and stated that all defendants were innocent.
Verdict and appeals After 150 trial days, the verdict was delivered on 5 October 1909. 31 of the accused were sentenced to between five and twelve years, while 22 were quitted and immediately released. The 31 were found guilty of treason for inciting the idea that Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Bačka, Baranya, Istria and Slovenia should secede from the Austria-Hungary and be annexed to the Kingdom of Serbia. In the explanation of the judgment, the court stated that the main evidence of their guilt was that they were "using Serbian flag and Serbian coat of arms, and Cyrillic alphabet", "economically separating Serbs and Croats", and "popularizing the image of Serbian king Peter I and spreading positive image about Serbia and its freedoms".
The defense immediately appealed the verdict to the Table of Seven for re-examination. On 31 December 1909, those that were sentenced to less than ten years (29 of them, all except the Pribićević brothers) were temporarily released from detention by the Table of Seven while deciding on the appeal. In March 1910, the Table of Seven refused to release Pribićević brothers. On 4 April 1910, the Table quashed the verdict and ordered re-trial. Pribićević brothers were finally released from detention on 11 April 1910 after bail of 12000 krone was posted for both.
In November 1910, the Emperor pardoned all of the accused and the proceedings against them were terminated. The accused were not pleased with this development as they wanted re-trail so that they can prove their innocence.
Reactions Croatian and Serbian newspapers from Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojvodina, as well as those from Serbia (Politika) covered the process extensively and criticized it sharply. After applauding arrests and criticizing arrested Serbs for their "anti-state" actions, Hungarian and Austrian newspapers turned their opinion against the process once it began. Budapesti Napló called the trial "a global scandal" and "a national tragedy", "hastily started only to please Aehrenthal". French, Russian, Polish, British, German, Italian and American press covered the trial in length, criticizing it. Many of them had their correspondents in Zagreb, covering the trial, including Hermann Bahr who wrote for Berliner Tageblatt. Politicians (Tomáš Masaryk, Václav Klofáč, Pavel Milyukov) and experts (Robert Seton-Watson, Wickham Steed, Cesare Lombroso) came to Zagreb to watch the trial.
The trial drew huge publicity, and the public opinion about it was overwhelmingly negative, which was a disaster for the public image of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In a brochure on the trial, printed in France, Belgian politician Emile Vandervelde wrote: "The Zagreb trial is the largest judicial scandal of our time." Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote an article for The Times criticizing the process. Both French Human Rights League and its Belgian counterpart adopted resolutions against the Zagreb trial. After the verdict, large protests were organized in Dubrovnik and Kotor. In Montenegro, state authorities prevented public protests.
Croatian Sabor was not able to discuss the trial as it was adjourned during the entirety of Rauch's tenure. The Diet of Hungary addressed the issue on several occasions. Serbian and Croatian MPs criticized the trial and the Prime Minister, and Hungarian MP Soma Visontai joined those critics. In the Imperial Council's House of Deputies, Masaryk and 63 other MPs demanded an inquiry into the Zagreb trial. The proposal gained 167 votes against 133, but it was not accepted as it lacked the required supermajority.
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