The reality of the recently released New South Wales (NSW) Croatian Six inquiry report is unmistakable: Australia’s justice system fundamentally failed six men and their community.

Ironically, it may have also failed itself.

At the same time, the presiding judge, Justice Robert Hulme’s 850-page, two-volume final report, reached an interesting compromise.

One of the report’s most controversial conclusions found that NSW Police and/or the DPP withheld vital intelligence that should have been shared with the defence and acknowledged that this information questions the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness.

It identified a range of shortcomings in the initial investigation. However, the report specifically concluded that only three of the six convictions should be referred to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.

These conclusions, based on withheld evidence and flawed investigations, directly undermine the logic of referring only three convictions for review, exposing a central inconsistency in the inquiry’s approach.

Witness credibility cannot be selectively applied.

Witness credibility cannot be selectively applied.

This fundamental contradiction is why the inquiry fails to deliver real justice, instead reinforcing the persistent problem of institutional self-preservation overriding accountability.

For years, the NSW Police’s ‘political intelligence unit,’ known as Special Branch, held intelligence on Vico Virkez, the prosecution’s central witness, suggesting he had links to the notorious Yugoslav secret police (UDBA) and complex connections with Croatian nationalist groups that neither the jury nor defence ever knew.

Not least of which was that Virkez, whose real name was Vitomir Misimovic, was not even a Croat but an ethnic Serb from Bosnia who was cosplaying as a Croatian ‘nationalist’.

Just over a decade later, he would, on the ABC’s Four Corners, confess his initial testimony was fabricated and that he was ‘coerced’ by NSW Police, including disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson.

Rogerson himself was ultimately convicted of murder and died in prison in 2024.

This was not peripheral information.

It went directly to the credibility, motives, and possible loyalties of the prosecution’s most important witness.

No criminal justice system can function effectively if such vital information is withheld.

As any lawyer will freely admit, disclosure is not a courtesy for defence lawyers. It is crucial for protection against wrongful convictions.

When the state has evidence that undermines its case, the accused must obtain it to receive a fair trial.

That never happened with the Croatian Six.

The consequence is that every aspect of the prosecution’s case comes under scrutiny.

Instead of fully addressing........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)