Violence before the hearing
Gordana Oraškić was in divorce proceedings with her husband. Contemporary and later Croatian reporting identified him as a Novi Zagreb police officer who had been suspended amid a separate investigation involving a fire at the home of Gordana’s parents.
The case belongs within the history of intimate-partner and gender-based violence, but it also targeted the professionals helping administer the divorce proceeding. Gordana’s attorney, Hajra Prohić, and the presiding judge, Ljiljana Hvalec, were killed because they were present in that courtroom and carrying out their roles.
The attack at court
On the morning of September 22, 1999, Oraškić entered the courtroom before the scheduled divorce hearing and opened fire. Gordana Oraškić, Hajra Prohić and Judge Hvalec were killed. The court reporter survived serious injuries.
Sources differ on the survivor’s first name: the Croatian Constitutional Court’s English-language commemoration identifies Sanja Cvetković, while several Croatian news reports use Stanka Cvetković. This dossier preserves that discrepancy rather than selecting one version as certain.
Flight and arrest
Oraškić left the courthouse after the shootings and attempted to travel toward Slovenia. Croatian police arrested him at the Bregana border crossing. The arrest prevented a prolonged manhunt and moved the case quickly into prosecution.
At trial, Oraškić denied responsibility and claimed he had been framed. The court rejected that defense after evaluating the evidence and found him guilty of the three killings and the attempted killing of the court reporter.
The 40-year sentence
On November 20, 2000, the trial court imposed 40 years in prison along with psychiatric treatment. Croatian legal reporting later recorded the sentence as final. It was the first time an independent Croatian court imposed the maximum 40-year prison term available under the criminal code that had taken effect in 1998.
The treatment order did not amount to a finding that Oraškić lacked criminal responsibility. He was convicted and punished as the perpetrator; psychiatric treatment accompanied, rather than replaced, the custodial sentence.
National remembrance
The killings transformed September 22 into a date of national remembrance. The Croatian Parliament designated it the National Day of Combating Violence against Women, and courts and public institutions continue to commemorate the three women and the wounded survivor.
The legacy is broader than courthouse security. The official commemoration frames the attack as a warning about violence against women and the obligation of institutions to protect victims, legal representatives and judicial workers.
Sources
- Constitutional Court of Croatia — National Day of Combating Violence against WomenSeptember 22, 2025 · Official identification of the victims and national commemoration
- HINA — Oraškić answers the chargesNovember 9, 2000 · Contemporary national news-agency trial report
- HINA — Oraškić sentenced to 40 years and treatmentNovember 2000 · Contemporary conviction report
- Večernji list — landmark Croatian judgmentsNovember 19, 2012 · Sentence date, legal significance and case summary
- Jutarnji list — final 40-year sentenceFebruary 3, 2007 · Later confirmation that the sentence was final