Аустроугарски велеиздајнички судски процеси
Austro-Hungarian High-Treasonous Court Processes

Summary/Abstract: Six years prior the Banja Luka Process in 1909 in Zagreb a large high-treasonous lawsuit was organized against Adam and Valerijan Pribićević as well as against another fifty one Serbs. The extension of Zagreb high-treasonous process was Friedjung Process in Vienna. This process was named after the professor of the University of Vienna Heinrich Friedjung. Alois Aehrenthal, the Austro-Hungarian foreign Minister submitted against him numerous false documents that were forged in the Austrian consulate in Belgrade in accordance with Minister János Forgách. On the 3rd of November 1915 in the crowded great hall of Girls’ College in Banja Luka the trial began. The chairman of this trial was Judge Koloman Milec and also there were the jury members who had the right to vote - Dr. Julius Ansion and Mayer Hoffman. Dr. William Koenig who was the prosecutor was reading the indictment for days. Koenig began his speech that was well known to the defendants. The very reading of the indictment required a lot of effort and patience from the prosecutors Dr. William Koenig and Ziga Pinter, having in mind that it had 262 pages printed in large paper format. With the reading of the indictment began a large court process which was known in history as the Banja Luka High-treasonous Process. The world public, especially the professors from the distinguished universities were very surprised by the actions of the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities that staged such a monstrous court process accusing for high treason a large part of Serbian intelligence in Bosnia and Herzegovina in late 1915, the time when its military forces achieved successes and had a great offensive in the Balkans, when Austro-Hungarian Empire was convinced that Serbia will lose the war. All of the contested national organizations by their opinion were also accused. It was much harder with an organization like Prosvjeta which was practically invulnerable because of its complete legality and transparence of action. At the beginning of the 20th century there were no more than 24 Serbs with university education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prosvjeta was the one that helped to build up the modern Serbian intelligentsia in the provinces. This was a broad covered organization and in 1911 it had a network of 79 subcommittees, 266 commissioners and several thousand of helping members. By the beginning of the war this educational organization has schooled 127 students at international universities and 220 high school students. This changed the ratio of Serbian and non-Serbian intellectuals significantly and the domination of Catholic intellectuals was weakened. In 1913 there were 319 Catholic, 100 Muslim and 265 Orthodox graduated students. The trial of the whole organization in Banja Luka Process was really inappropriate and it was argued on the premise that the secretary of this organization allegedly practiced subversive propaganda. The main goal of these high-treasonous processes was to abolish the institutions that created such powerful and aware national intelligentsia. Pašić tried to engage the Dutch government and other friends in Europe in order to ensure amnesties after Banja Luka Process. Pašić had received the news from Paris that the Spanish king had sent a second telegram to Vienna in favor of the Banja Luka convicts upon the intersession of some French Catholic intellectuals. Then the news came from the Vatican that the papal Nuncio was at the audience with the Austrian emperor and that the subject of their discussion was an amnesty for the ‘high traitors‘; however, no news came from the Nuncio. This was the reason why the Vatican demanded a report from the Nuncio who on the 1st of March replied that he made a heartwarming application for an amnesty on the behalf of the Pope, yet that he didn’t receive any response from the Austrians. Finally, on the 28th of March 1917 Pašić received a telegram from Madrid stating that 16 death inmates from Banja Luka Process were amnestied. Pašić and Nikola Stojanović respectfully, in a sort of a sobbing note thanked the King of Spain on behalf of the entire Serbian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the families of amnestied convicts. Text of the Austrian Emperor’s telegram to the Spanish king Alfonso XIII said: “In response to your wish and with sincere joy because I have the right to amnesty, I abolished the death penalty to 16 Bosniaks”.

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