Case of Sabalic v. Croatia Judgment

K. Wojtyczek, R. Degener, K. Turkovic, L. Sicilianos, A. Polácková, E. WennerstrÃm

Judgment of the case concerned a woman who was violently attacked in a Zagreb nightclub after refusing a man's advances and disclosing to him that she was a lesbian. The police failed to investigate the motive behind the attack and instituted only minor offence proceedings for breach of public peace and order, in which the aggressor was (unbeknown to the victim) convicted and given a fine of 300 Croatian kunas (approximately 40 euros). When Ms Sabalic lodged a criminal complaint against her aggressor before the competent authorities, alleging that she had been the victim of a violent hate crime, the authorities dismissed the complaint on the basis that a criminal prosecution was barred by the minor offences conviction. This was upheld by the domestic Croatian courts.