During yesterday, the whole of Zagreb was in a state of collapse, because people came from all over to sing with Thompson songs promoting extremism, intolerance and hatred.
What caught the eye of many was when Marko Petrović Thompson came on stage in a black T-shirt with the number 03941158 on it.
Thompson wears this number as a dedication to Zvonko Bušić (January 23, 1946 – September 1, 2013), to whom he dedicated the song"Duh ratnika" published on the album Once Upon a Time in Hrvatska in 2006.
Who was Zvonko Bušić?
In 1977, Zvonko Bušić was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States of America for the hijacking of an airplane and crimes that led to the death of another person.
He was convicted of air piracy resulting in death and conspiracy.
Namely, on September 10, 1976, Bušić together with his wife Julien Eden Bušić and three other associates hijacked the passenger plane TWA Flight 355 on the flight from New York to Chicago. During the hijacking, the hijackers claimed to have a bomb on board and planted a real bomb in a locker at Grand Central Terminal in New York.
The bomb they planted killed the policeman
During an attempt to defuse the bomb, the explosion killed police officer Brian Murray. Bušić claimed responsibility for planting the bomb, but claimed that authorities ignored his instructions on safe handling of explosives.
After the trial, Bušić was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 10 years. He spent 32 years in prison, and in 2008 he was released on parole and deported to Croatia.
In Croatia, he was greeted with mixed reactions - some considered him a hero of the fight for Croatian independence, while others saw him as a terrorist.
Bušić was not formally convicted of terrorism, because at the time of the trial, that term was not legally defined in the American judiciary. His wife, Julien Bušić, insisted that he was convicted of air piracy and conspiracy, not terrorism.
Zvonko Bušić committed suicide on September 1, 2013 in his house in Rovanjska near Zadar.
