In the editorial in the weekly's latest issue, entitled "A Juridical Crime", published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the sentencing of the Zagreb archbishop, which is described as "the juridical murder of an innocent man", editor Ivan Miklenic states that reviewing the trial would impose the need to review a number of other, similarly rigged political trials.
The Croatian parliament's 1992 declaration condemning the political trial and sentencing of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac creates room for revision, Miklenic said.
He goes on to say that by failing to deal with stains from its past the Croatian judiciary of today was defending "what objectively cannot be defended".
Miklenic says his claim is confirmed by the "conscious and intentional" refusal to launch an investigation into politically-motivated, communist war and post-war crimes, even in such cases when relevant documents have been submitted to the state prosecutor's office.
"As long as juridical crimes are being tolerated, there is no chance of building a society that would be governed by law and justice," Miklenic said.
Stepinac (1898-1960) was ordained in 1930 and took over the Zagreb archdiocese in 1937.
The former Yugoslav authorities sentenced him at a rigged trial in 1946 to 16 years of prison and he was stripped of his civil rights for five years on charges of responsibility for war crimes. In 1951 he was transferred from the Lepoglava prison to his house in Krasic, near Zagreb, where in 1960 he died in isolation, exhausted by illness. He was buried in the Zagreb Cathedral.
Pope Pius XII declared Stepinac cardinal in 1952. He gained international recognition for his opposition to totalitarian ideologies and was beatified by Pope John Paul II during the Pope's visit to Croatia in 1998.