At the time of the liquidation of Arso Jovanović, Mihael Golob-Mirko was the head of the Directorate for State Security (UDBA) in the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (JA). He claims he witnessed Jefto Šašić, the chief of the Counter-Intelligence Service (KOS) in the JA, kill Arso mid-argument, and that he was personally involved in staging the death of the wartime Chief of the Supreme Headquarters. He was later tried by the Yugoslav government for his own alleged Cominformist activities, including his refusal to accept the official narrative around the mysterious high-profile death.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
of the hearing
Drawn up on September 6, 2000 at the District Court in Ljubljana in the proceedings for the reconstruction of the case file against the convicted MIHAEL GOLOB, for the criminal offence of hostile propaganda under Article 9 of the Law on Criminal Offences Against the Nation and State.
PRESENT:
District Judge: ALIJANA RAVNIK
Court clerk: BRIGITA KRALJ
Start of session: 1:00 p.m.
The presiding judge opens the session, announces the subject of the main hearing, the composition of the panel, and confirms that the summoned Mihael Golob is present.
Appears the convicted MIHAEL GOLOB, son of Anton and Jerca, born December 24, 1925 in Gozd, residing in Kamnik, Prešernova 8.
In response to the court’s question, I state that at the time of the trial — in 1949 and 1950 — I was an officer of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). I was employed in the RVK unit, which means the Reserve of the Supreme Command of the JNA in Belgrade. At that time, I resided at Topčider 27 in Belgrade. I was tried before the Military Court of the Second Military Authority in Novi Sad. The prosecutor was a military prosecutor from Novi Sad. The panel consisted of three members, and a court clerk was present as well, but I do not remember the names of the panel members. I had been in pre-trial detention since June 12, 1949.
The judgement and indictment accused me of committing a criminal offence as a JNA officer. The alleged offence began after my return from Russia, i.e. from August 1948. It all actually started with the Cominform affair. The accusation was that I had planned to flee to Romania and then on to the Soviet Union, where I was to spread information and act towards the destabilization of Yugoslavia and its official institutions and system. The indictment also accused me of acting to persuade the Yugoslav army not to fight in the event of a Soviet attack on Yugoslavia. However, they did not accuse me of anything specific — neither where I was supposedly doing this nor whom I was trying to persuade. They also claimed that many others had stayed in Russia after completing their studies at the academy, whereas I had allegedly returned with the intention of acting against Yugoslavia on orders from the NKVD.
I state that the entire procedure was staged. We had a meeting attended by Arso Jovanović, Branko Petričević and Vlado Dapčević — it was a very high-level meeting, and an argument broke out. During the argument, General Šašić drew a pistol and shot Arso Jovanović. Then it became necessary to cover it up, and since I was in such a position, I was part of the group that had to transport the dead Arso Jovanović to the border near Bela Crkva. There, it was staged to look as if he had tried to escape across the border and had been shot by a border guard. Petričević was also presented as if he had attempted to escape and was brought to the border as well. Later, when I saw what was being written in the newspapers and broadcast on the radio regarding Arso Jovanović’s death and the alleged escape of Branko Petričević and Vlado Dapčević, I said — either in the presence of or directly to Kljajić — that I disapproved of such things, as I knew very well where Arso Jovanović had been killed and what had happened with Petričević and Dapčević. That statement turned out to be fatal for me. Kljajić reported this to Šašić. A few days later, on June 12, I was arrested.
I was tried without a defence attorney. The fact that some documents from Belgrade and various prisons list the name Milan instead of Mihael is, in my opinion, the result of an error. I have always been Mihael, although my partisan name was Mirko.
I followed the dictation of the record and sign it as accurate.
Session concluded at 1:30 p.m.
Court Clerk:
BRIGITA KRALJ
District Judge:
ALIJANA RAVNIK
District Court in Ljubljana, Record of the interrogation of Mihael Golob, September 6, 2000.
(Translated from the Slovenian original)
Original Documents
