Vaso Čubrilović was a student in Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

, when Danilo Ilić

Danilo Ilic

Danilo Ilić was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1891 and died in 1915. He attended the State Teachers' College in Sarajevo and for a while taught at a school in Bosnia. In 1913 Ilic moved to Belgrade where he became a journalist and a member of the Black Hand secret society.Ilic returned to...

 recruited him and his friend, Cvjetko Popović

Cvjetko Popovic

Cvjetko Popović was a Serb born in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1896. He was a student in Sarajevo when Danilo Ilić recruited him and his friend, Vaso Čubrilović to help assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand....

, to help assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...

. His brother, Veljko Čubrilović

Veljko Cubrilovic

Veljko Čubrilović was involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.He was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He became a schoolteacher in Priboj Majevicki, but in 1914, as a member of the Black Hand secret society, agreed to help Gavrilo Princip, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, and...

, was also involved in the plot.

On Sunday, 28 June 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg

Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg

Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg ; 1 March 1868 – 28 June 1914) was a Czech aristocrat, the morganatic wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Their assassination sparked World War I.- Early life :...

 were assassinated

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins coordinated by Danilo Ilić...

 by Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip

Gavrilo Princip was the Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914...

. Princip and Nedeljko Čabrinović

Nedeljko Cabrinovic

Nedeljko Čabrinović was a member of the nationalist Young Bosnia movement, and one of a group of seven who intended to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria during his announced visit to Sarajevo.Born in Sarajevo, Čabrinović spent many of his post-school years as a handyman, before...

 were captured and interrogated by the police. They eventually gave the names of their fellow conspirators. Muhamed Mehmedbašić

Muhamed Mehmedbašic

Muhamed Mehmedbašić was a Bosniak/Muslim revolutionary and participant in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.-Background:...

 who managed to escape to Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, but Vaso Čubrilović, Danilo Ilić, Veljko Čubrilović, Cvjetko Popović and Miško Jovanović were arrested and charged with treason and murder.

Eight of the men charged with treason and the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand were found guilty. Under Austro-Hungarian law, capital punishment could not be imposed on someone who was under the age of twenty when they had committed the crime. Nedjelko Čabrinović, Gavrilo Princip and Trifko Grabež

Trifko Grabež

Trifun "Trifko" Grabež was a Bosnian Serb member of the organization the Black Hand involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria....

 therefore received the maximum penalty of twenty years. Vaso Čubrilović got sixteen years and Cvjetko Popović thirteen years. Miško Jovanović, Danilo Ilić and Veljko Čubrilović, who helped the assassins kill the royal couple, were executed on 3 February 1915.

Vaso Čubrilović was released when the Allies

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

 defeated the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

 in November 1918. He became a teacher in Sarajevo and subsequently a professor at the University of Belgrade

University of Belgrade

The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...

.
After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Vaso Čubrilović served as Minister of Forests in Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

's government. He died in 1990, the last surviving participant in the conspiracy to assassinate the Archduke.