Split police have charged nine people for their involvement in the incident in the city's Blatine district, in which a group of men attacked and chased away a Serbian folklore group during a cultural event organized by the Serbian Cultural Society “Prosveta“, the national Croatian television HRT reported, quoted by BTA.
There are no minors among the accused – the youngest was born in 2002, and the oldest in 1966, the television specified. Three of them are facing an investigating judge at the Split District Court, who has ordered them to be detained for one month. According to the court, there is a risk that the suspects will influence witnesses or commit a new crime if they are released.
The police announced that there are reasonable suspicions against the nine of “violent behavior motivated by hatred and violation of the right to express national identity“. The investigation is ongoing, and law enforcement agencies are also searching for other participants in the attack.
The detainees' lawyers dispute the charges, claiming that their clients' actions do not constitute a crime, HRT reports.
“We believe that there are no grounds for pre-trial detention and that there is simply no crime here“, said lawyer Vinko Ljubicic, quoted by local media.
The incident occurred on the evening of November 4, when a group of masked men dressed in black broke into the premises where the opening of the Days of Serbian Culture was being prepared, HRT recalls. At the time of the attack, eight young participants from a folklore group from Novi Sad and several adult members of the society were in the hall. The police arrived at the scene shortly after the report was filed. The case sparked widespread public reaction and condemnation from institutions and organizations, which called for a full investigation and sanctions against the perpetrators. According to the police investigating the incident, there was no physical violence or injuries.
According to unofficial information, the young people who invaded the event told the organizers that the program could not be held during the commemoration of the Serbian occupation of the Croatian city of Vukovar in the 1990s and asked the visiting folklore group from the Serbian city of Novi Sad to leave, HINA reports.
Vukovar is a symbol of resistance to the occupation by Serbian forces in Croatia. In the fall of 1991, the city was attacked by the then Yugoslav People's Army and volunteers from Serbia. After months of attacks, the city's Croatian defenses were broken on November 18, 1991, and most of the non-Serb civilian population was expelled from the city, Radio Free Europe notes.
Some of the Croatian soldiers and police were liquidated in an area near the city, while the rest were held in camps and prisons in Serbia.