The State v. Sauerbeck (1932) was the criminal trial of Maxi Sauerbeck, logistical architect of the 1931 Vijrje Anniversary Attack. The District V Court in Moskiprovac unanimously convicted him of terrorism, conspiracy, and murder, and rejected any claim to prisoner-of-war status.
Background
Sauerbeck, a senior BRC-21 planner from Sprodvice, coordinated the failed multi-pronged anniversary plot. Captured co-conspirators Alex Gilger and Jan Bohn implicated him under interrogation; security forces arrested him in Sprodvice three days after the attack.
Holding
A seven-justice District V panel convicted unanimously (7–0). The court classified BRC-21 defendants as criminal insurgents, not combatants, denying POW protections. Sauerbeck received life imprisonment without parole eligibility for twenty-five years; co-conspirators drew fifteen-to-forty-year terms. He died in Sinj State Penitentiary in 1948.
Legacy
The case established the Republic’s durable posture that Bosken militant violence would be tried as ordinary crime rather than wartime belligerency — a frame later echoed against AFIM and other separatist defendants. Catalogue: Landmark Cases.