 | ||
Born September 16, 1940 ( 1940-09-16 ) Belgrade, Yugoslavia Occupation Attorney, Author, Columnist Website | ||
Deyan Ranko Brashich (Serbian: Dejan Ranko Brašić; Serbian Cyrillic: Дejan Ранко Бraшiћ, b. 16 September 1940) is a New York City attorney, author, and columnist.
Contents
Early life
Brashich, born in Belgrade in 1940, fled communist Yugoslavia in 1946. His father was a Serbian royalist and anti-communist figure. He is a graduate of Connecticut's Trinity College, the New York University School of Law and The Hague Academy of International Law. He attended the University of Grenoble and University of Hartford's School of Art at the Wadsworth Athenaeum.
Legal career
Admitted to the New York Bar in 1966, Brashich was a litigator. He recovered purloined art – Constantin Brancusi's The Muse; he represented the politically jailed Graiver family in Argentina and international business interests from Nigeria, Liberia, Argentina and Yugoslavia. He espoused constitutional/equal protection challenges, appearing before the Supreme Court in Schwartz v Postel, Regents v Bakke, Steelworkers v Weber as well as in Brashich v Port Authority.
He was a Professor at Pace University School of Law, White Plains, New York from 1983–1989.
He was a founding member of the Serbian-American Bar Association.
He represented Nikola Kavaja, the "Assassin Who Failed to Kill Tito" and the hijacker of American Airlines Flight 293. In June, 1979 he boarded the hijacked plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and negotiated the release of 135 passengers; he substituted himself as hostage and surrendered his client at Shannon, Ireland.
He defended Momcilo Krajisnik, the Speaker of the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska and a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996–1998) and Stevan Todorovic, both accused of war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Hague, the Netherlands.
He was decorated with the Orders of the Star of Karadjeorge and St. Sava [Royal, Yugoslav]; Selective Service Medal [Civil US].
Publisher, op-ed columnist and author
Brashich was editor and publisher of The Foothill News, 1984–1991.
He is an op-ed columnist for several US newspapers. His column won 2nd Place Award 2011 for Best Opinion Column. He is editor-at-large for The Country and Abroad, an art and museum magazine and writes the Letter from America column for Scrisul Romanesc, a literary magazine published in Romania. He is a frequent contributor to Pecat, Britic and EKurd Daily.