Danilo Ilià(Serbian Cyrillic: ÃÂðýøûþ ÃÂûøÃÂ; 27 July 1890 â 3 February 1915) was a Bosnian Serb who was among the chief organisers of the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Born in what is modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, he attended the State Teachers' College in Sarajevo and for a while taught at a school in Bosnia. In 1913, Iliàmoved to Belgrade where he became a journalist and a member of the Black Hand secret society. Iliàreturned to Sarajevo in 1914 where he worked as an editor of a local Serb newspaper. He became a member of Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia). He recruited Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko ÃÂabrinoviÃÂ, Vaso ÃÂubriloviÃÂ, Trifko Grabeà ¾, Muhamed Mehmedbaà ¡iÃÂ, and Cvjetko Popoviàto assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which led directly to World War I. He and Gavrilo Princip were close friends.
On Sunday, 28 June 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie von Chotkow were assassinated by Princip. Princip and Nedeljko ÃÂabrinoviàwere captured and interrogated by the police. They held out, but IliÃÂ, who was picked up, eventually broke down under interrogation and named his fellow conspirators. Muhamed Mehmedbaà ¡iàmanaged to escape to Serbia but Veljko ÃÂubriloviÃÂ, Vaso ÃÂubriloviÃÂ, Cvjetko Popoviàand Mià ¡ko Jovanoviàas well as Danilo Iliàwere 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 Austria-Hungarian law, capital punishment could not be imposed on someone who was under the age of twenty when they had committed the crime. Nedeljko ÃÂabrinoviÃÂ, Gavrilo Princip and Trifko Grabeà ¾ therefore received the maximum penalty of twenty years, whereas Vaso ÃÂubriloviàgot 16 years and Cvjetko Popovià13 years. IliÃÂ, Veljko ÃÂubrilovic and Mià ¡ko JovanoviÃÂ, who helped the assassins kill the royal couple, were executed at the Sarajevo barracks on 3 February 1915.