Liturgy and memorial service for the war criminal Mihailović in Grblje

The Metropolitanate of the Montenegrin and Littoral Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) marked yesterday the day of the death of the convicted war criminal Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, the commander of the Chetnik forces during the Second World War.

In the church of the Holy Trinity on Pelinska rudina, in Gornji Grblje, a holy liturgy was held with a memorial service for Mihailović, who was shot by the authorities of the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ) on July 17, 1946.

Two days earlier, the Supreme Court of the FNRJ sentenced Mihailović to death by firing squad, permanent loss of political and civil rights and confiscation of all property, for treason, cooperation with the occupiers and numerous war crimes committed by the Chetniks he commanded.

Mihailović was shot in the vicinity of Belgrade, and his grave is not officially known to this day.

According to the court's verdict, the Serbian authorities rehabilitated Mihailović in May 2015, just a few days after the commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the Victory over Fascism Day...

"On July 17, it will be 76 years since the martyrdom of General Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, the commander of the Royal Army in the homeland", states the proclamation of the descendants of the soldiers of the Royal Army, which is signed by the Grbalj Church Municipality - Upper Grbalj parish.

Parish priest Anđelko Boričić told "Vijesta" in a telephone conversation that he does not make any statements to the media.

Priest Mijajlo Backović, who was the parish priest of Gornjogrbalj for the previous 13 years and served the memorial service for Mihailović, said that the memorial service is held every year on this day, the day when General Mihailović was shot.

"Everyone knows that the people of Grbljan were 85 percent in the King's army, that's why their descendants have been serving this memorial for many years to all their ancestors, most of whom don't even know the grave. The Church remembers all the innocent victims, on whatever side they participated in the war, and so on this day also these victims. The Church does not divide victims and does not judge, God will judge everyone according to their deeds", Backović told "Vijesti".

The trial of Mihailović and a group of twenty-three other defendants is also known as the Belgrade trial, based on the Nuremberg trial held in Germany in 1945 and 1946, in which the Nazis were tried.

The official name of the proceedings was "Trial of Dragoljubu Draža Mihailović and other collaborators for treason and war crimes committed on the territory of Yugoslavia during the war (1941-1945)".

According to historical sources, Mihailović was arrested on the night between March 12 and 13, in the vicinity of Višegrad, after a months-long operation by the Department for People's Protection (OZNA).

Officially, in the fall of 1945, an OZNE agent managed to get into the illegal Belgrade Chetnik organization and through it to get in contact with the Chetnik commander Nikola Kalabić, whom he managed to lure to Belgrade with the story of his transfer abroad, where he was arrested. . During the investigation, Kalabić allegedly agreed to cooperate with OZNO and, with a group of ten officers disguised as Chetniks, went in search of Mihailović, who was hiding in the villages around Višegrad, after the collapse of the Chetnik forces.

The action was allegedly directed by the highest officials of the public and secret police, Jovo Kapidžić, Aleksandar Ranković, Slobodan Penezić Krcun and Svetolik Lazarević.

According to historical sources, after his arrest, Mihailović was brought to court and sentenced to death by firing squad by Mihailo Đorđević (President of the Council) and judges Milija Laković, Mihailo Janković, Nikola Stanković and Radomir Ilić.

The indictment was represented by military prosecutor Miloš Minić, assisted by Miloš Jovanović.

Mihailović admitted in court that his commanders cooperated with the occupier, but defended himself that they did so on their own.

Numerous confiscated original documents from the Chetnik, German, Italian and Ustasha archives, as well as the testimonies of people, were, according to numerous sources, the main evidence against Mihailović.

The court established from numerous written documents, original dispatches and written reports of Chetnik commanders that the commanders carried out Mihailović's orders - to commit war crimes, kill captured partisans, burn, loot, destroy the civilian population...

According to those documents, Mihailović regularly ordered the commanders to attack, destroy and exterminate anyone who helped the partisans in any way, and especially to exterminate Muslims and Croats.