[2] Glavaš came to prominence in his home city of Osijek in eastern Croatia during the war when he led its defense and attained the rank of major general in the Croatian Army.

After a lengthy and controversial trial, during which he was re-elected to parliament and had to be stripped of immunity twice, in 2009 he was found guilty of torture and murder of Serb civilians in Osijek during the war, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Zagreb County Court.

[9] Glavaš' father Ljubomir and his mother Zorka (née Pandžić), were born in Drinovci, Grude (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) and moved to Osijek in 1949.

In that period Glavaš surprised many by offering agricultural subsidies to ethnic Serb citizens in then-occupied sections of eastern Slavonia, and explaining that he would be "first in peace just as he was first in war".

[3] In November 1997, he petitioned the authorities to recognize his partial disability, caused by a broken rib injury he sustained while driving near Bjelovar in January 1992.

[citation needed] A year later, the HDZ won the November 2003 parliamentary election and Sanader became prime minister, with Glavaš as one of his most important allies.

Glavaš expressed Euroscepticism with regard to how the EU would handle the Croatian accession negotiations, and was critical towards the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

On 20 April 2005, the programme of the Hrvatski demokratski sabor Slavonije i Baranje - Croatian Democratic Assembly of Slavonia and Baranja - was first published.

Glavaš was immediately ejected from the HDZ the following day but not before persuading almost the entire membership of his local party to support his project and new electoral ticket.

[14] In the 2005 Croatian local elections, his list of independent candidates won a relative majority in Osijek and Osijek-Baranja County.

In June 2005 Glavaš defeated this scheme, first by allying with the far-right Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), in a coalition that gave the HSP the mayoral position in Osijek for the first time;[14] and then by persuading some assemblymen of the anti-Glavaš coalition to support his candidates in inaugural sessions of the Osijek-Baranja county and City of Osijek assembly.

[citation needed] On 21 May 2005 Glavaš and his supporters founded a new political party - Hrvatski demokratski savez Slavonije i Baranje - the Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja.

However, on 23 October one investigative magistrate issued an arrest warrant, which was approved by the Mandate-Immunity Committee of Croatian Parliament after four days of dramatic and confusing deliberations.

[17] Glavaš was re-indicted on 16 April 2007 at the county court in Osijek, on charges of having given orders to members of a unit under his command to abduct, torture and murder Serbs in late 1991.

[19][20][21] On 8 May 2009 the Zagreb District Court found Glavaš guilty of torture and murder of Serbian civilians in Osijek, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

[22] Following the verdict however, Vladimir Šišljagić, the leader of HDSSB, the political party Glavaš founded when he left HDZ, showed up in court instead of him and stated that he was "in a safe place".

[17] In June 2010, the Supreme Court of Croatia confirmed the guilty verdict for Glavaš and others, but reduced the sentence slightly, to eight years of prison.

[26] The parliamentary committee subsequently decided that his mandate ended with the day of the final verdict, 2 May 2010, a decision he publicly appealed saying they owe him one salary.

[30] Due to his contribution during Croatian War of Independence Glavaš was rewarded with several medals:[31] [32] After his war crimes conviction, the revocation of these decorations was an oft-mentioned topic in the media, and both Croatian Presidents Mesić and Josipović said that they would handle the issue according to the law which states that illegal and immoral acts are grounds for revocation.

Josipović responded by stating that the metal insignia can be dealt with whichever way one wishes to deal with them, but that the moral content of the honor is bestowed by the President of the Republic.