Keleva

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Kelava, an anti-communist dissident, came to the United States from the Croatian region of the former Yugoslavia as a refugee in 1969. He became a legal permanent resident in 1972.

In the late 1970’s, the Federal Republic of Germany (“West Germany”) began deporting and extraditing Croatian dissi- dents to Yugoslavia where they were allegedly being tortured and executed. In April 1978, Kelava and another man entered the West German Consulate in Chicago, armed with hand- guns, ropes and a phony bomb. United States v. Kelava, 610 F.2d 479, 480 (7th Cir. 1979). They seized several employees (including a Consular Officer), demanding that West Ger- many refuse to extradite Stepan Bilandzic, a prominent Cro- atian dissident, to Yugoslavia. After being permitted to speak with Bilandzic, Kelava and his cohort released the hostages unharmed. Id.

Kelava and his companion were initially indicted and con- victed in federal court of conspiracy and kidnapping of for- eign officials, but the district court judge later determined that he had erred in instructing the jury on a lesser included 550 KELAVA v. GONZALES offense and ordered a new…