Croatian Six: ‘I did 10 years’ jail for nothing … I am innocent’, says Mile Nekic

Mile Nekic, one of the Croatian Six who spent a decade in Parramatta jail after being convicted of terror offences, has demanded ‘justice for an innocent man’.

Mile Nekic. Picture: ABC

Mile Nekic, one of the Croatian Six who spent a decade in Parramatta jail after being convicted of terror offences, has demanded “justice for an innocent man”.

Mr Nekic, 75, believes he was set up in a joint Yugoslav-­Australian operation sparked by undercover Yugoslav spy Vico Virkez, in co-operation with the NSW and Australian governments, who had all sought to ­silence his legal protests calling for an independent Croatia.

He said on Wednesday: “It was no secret that the secret police in Australia (ASIO) were working with the Yugoslav secret police.

“They allowed everything for Yugoslav secret police in Australia to do what they want to the Croatian community.”

Mr Nekic, an artist, told the Australian from his home in Osijek: “I was involved in politics, nothing else. I would like them (state and federal governments) to admit I was innocent. I was sentenced as an innocent man and I did 10 years’ jail for nothing. They know I am innocent.’’

Mr Nekic said his so-called unsigned confession was “all bullshit” and before his arrest he had never even known Virkez, the insider spy who had gone to NSW police claiming the men were preparing a terror attack on a Sydney theatre and the city water supply.

Mr Nekic returned to Croatia upon his release from jail utterly disheartened with the Australian judicial system, but then faced the civil war raging in the Balkans.

He said when he was in Australia in the late 1970s, he had been involved in protests and even a hunger strike, but had always acted within Australian law and would never have even thought about any terror acts.

“I am victim of war between the dirty job of Yugoslav secret police and the secret police in Australia, ASIO, working together to give a bad name to the Croats in Australia,’’ he said.