Andrija Artuković Andrija Artuković ( 29 November 1899 – 16 January 1988 ) was a Croatian politician and lawyer , Ustaše intellectual and minister in the Government of the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) . Artuković was convicted of war crimes committed against minorities in the NDH during World War II . Pre - war life . Andrija Artuković was born in Klobuk , near Ljubuški ( in Herzegovina ) , son of Marijan and Ruža ( née Rašić ) Artuković . He studied at a Franciscan monastery school in Široki Brijeg , later obtaining a doctorate in law from the University of Zagreb . From 1924 he worked as a court clerk in Zagreb , and in 1926 he opened an independent office in Gospić . In 1929 he became a member of the Ustaše , an ultranationalist Croatian revolutionary group . He went from Rijeka to Italy where Ante Pavelić named him his adjutant and commander of all Ustaše in Italy . He led a small uprising in Lika called the Velebit uprising , after which he returned to Italy . His Ustaše codename was " Hadžija " , and has been described as an " Ustaše intellectual " . Artuković was in conflict with a small group of M . Babić ( codenamed " Giovanni " ) supporters , and at the end of 1933 he left Italy . After that he lived in Budapest then Vienna for a short time where he was arrested in 1934 and held in prison for a time . He was expelled from Vienna , after which he returned to Budapest . At the beginning of September 1934 he met Pavelić in Milano , and in the middle of September 1934 he went to London . He was arrested there in October 1934 after the assassination of Yugoslav King Alexander I in Marseilles . After his arrest he was transferred to France , where he spent three months in prison in Paris . In January 1935 he was extradited to Yugoslavia and after 16 months spent in prison in Belgrade he was acquitted and released on 16 April 1936 . He lived in Gospić for a while , but in May 1936 he left the country again and went to Austria and later to Germany , where he was involved in spreading Ustaše propaganda . In early 1937 he was under Gestapo investigation in Berlin . Under threat of arrest he left Berlin and visited France , after which he moved to Budapest and then returned to Berlin . Ministerial career . After the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia on 10 April 1941 , Artuković returned to Zagreb and two days later was named member of the Croatian State Leadership , a temporary Croatian government formed by Slavko Kvaternik . After Pavelić arrived in Croatia , Artuković became the Minister of Interior in the first Croatian government from 16 April 1941 . He was a member of Pavelić ' s inner circle and was an obedient executor of his orders . Artuković participated in the Croatian - Italian boundary negotiations in Ljubljana that took place on 23 April 1941 . The agreement was known as Ciano - Pavelić agreement . He was also present at the signing of the Treaty of Rome on 18 May , and accompanied Pavelić during his visit to Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941 . He advocated a policy of terror and announced that Croatia would solve the " Jewish question " just as the German government had . He signed the racial laws proclaimed on 30 April and 4 June 1941 . After the government reshuffle on 10 October 1941 , he became Minister of Justice and Religion , then from 29 April 1943 until 1 October 1943 he was again the Minister of Interior . He was Secretary of State from 11 October 1943 until the end of the Independent State of Croatia on 8 May 1945 . Emigration and trials . With other members of Government , he left Zagreb on 6 May 1945 and went to Austria . He was detained in Allied camp in Spittal an der Drau . On 18 May 1945 , British extradited some Croatian ministers and Prime Minister Nikola Mandić to the communist authorities in Yugoslavia . Artuković wasn ' t extradited , but he was released soon with remaining ministers . He left British occupational zone , then he went to the American and later French occupational zone , where his family was . With Swiss passport , under name " Alois Anich " he went to Ireland . In 1948 , with his wife and children he travels to California using tourist visa which he later expanded with his real name and settled in Seal Beach . He worked in his brother ' s company . After his arrival to the States , Artuković refused to become Croatian political emigree . In July 1945 , the Yugoslav State Commission for Investigation of Crimes of Occupiers and Their Allies proclaimed Artuković a war criminal . The Government of the FPR Yugoslavia made a request for his extradition on 29 August 1951 . Their request made a 7 year long court process in Los Angeles . On 15 January 1959 , the verdict of the Supreme Court in Los Angeles rejected the Yugoslav request . Since the American Immigration Service raised the question of the legal basis of the stay of larger number of immigrants , associates of the German government during the World War II in USA , Yugoslav authorities , under initiative of the Special Investigation Court of the American Ministry of Justice , renewed the request for Artuković ' s extradition . Artuković was arrested on 14 November 1984 , and a court process began in New York . During his 1980s trial , the Justice Department attorneys referred to Artuković as the " Butcher of the Balkans " . Following the process , Artuković was extradited to Yugoslavia on 11 November 1986 . During trial in Zagreb between April and May 1986 , he was sentenced to death by shooting , but the verdict was not executed because of his personal health . Death . Artuković died of natural causes in prison hospital in Zagreb on 16 January 1988 . His son , Radoslav , requested information about his father ' s burial from Croatian authorities . The then - Socialist Republic of Croatia enacted a special law due to the case of Artković , to wit , that those convicted and sentenced to death but who escaped execution , must be interred as executed persons . There is possibility that Andrija Artuković was cremated , but the place of burial remains unknown . There are two versions that indicate what happened to his remains . The first states that State Security Administration members threw his ashes on relation Zagreb - Rijeka , and the other states his urn was buried at the prison cemetery at Lepoglava . In 2010 , the president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee , Ivan Zvonimir Čičak , called for authorities to investigate what happened to the remains . References .