1. Puchislav Rachich: A Controversial Figure in Yugoslav History
2. Assassination in the Parliament
3. Trial and Imprisonment
4. Second World War and Execution

Puchislav Rachich: A Controversial Figure in Yugoslav History

Early Life and Political Involvement

Puchislav Rachich, a Montenegrin politician and ethnic Serb, was born on July 12, 1886, in Slavonia, then under Ottoman rule. He moved to Belgrade in 1903 and joined the People's Radical Party of Serbia (NRS) after the First World War. In 1927, he was elected to the Yugoslav parliament as a radical.

Assassination in the Parliament

On June 20, 1928, Rachich shot and killed three Croatian Peasant Party politicians in the Yugoslav parliament: Pavle Radic, Djuro Basaricek, and Stjepan Radic, who was mortally wounded. Ivan Peric and Ivan Granja were also injured in the attack. The incident sparked outrage and led to the establishment of a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia.

Trial and Imprisonment

Rachich was arrested and charged with murder. His trial was repeatedly postponed and only commenced after King Alexander I dissolved the parliament and declared his dictatorship in January 1929. Opposition deputies, including the two survivors of the parliamentary shooting, boycotted the proceedings. Rachich was convicted but sentenced to 20 years of house arrest in Pozarevac, which he served under relatively comfortable conditions. He was eventually released on March 27, 1941.

Second World War and Execution

During most of the Second World War, Rachich lived a quiet life. However, he was arrested by Yugoslav partisans in October 1944 and sentenced to death by a military court. His execution was a significant violation of legal norms, as he had already been convicted for the same crime. There is no evidence of due process or documentation of the court proceedings or the exact time and place of his execution.

Politics