Croatia / County Court in Zagreb / Kž-573/15-3

Country

Croatia

Title

Croatia / County Court in Zagreb / Kž-573/15-3

View full Case

Year

2015

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Incident(s) concerned/related

Violence
Property offence

Related Bias motivation

Race/Ethnicity

Groups affected

Migrants

Court/Body type

National Court

Court/Body

County Court in Zagreb (Županijski sud u Zagrebu)

Key facts of the case

The High Court convicted the offender of hate crime on the basis of race. In a shop owned by the victim, the offender made offensive comments based on race, for no other reason than his intolerance for persons of another race. After that, he pulled the victim by her hair and injured her. He also smashed the glass door of the shop.

Main reasoning/argumentation

The accused filed a complaint accepting that he smashed victim’s property, however denying that his acts were motivated by hatred or intolerance towards persons of another race. The high court ruled that the first instance court correctly assessed all the facts and circumstances and that the first instance court provided substantiated reasoning for its assessment.

Is the case related to the application of the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, the Racial Equality Directive?

Key issues (concepts, interpretations) clarified by the case

The High Court upheld the First Instance court’s decision in qualifying this offence as an aggravated form of physical injury due to hatred on the bases of race and as a property offence in connection to hate crime as an aggravating circumstance . The High Court refers to the first instance decision for detailed reasoning without elaborating on what is hatred on the bases of race and how the offence qualifies as hate crime.

Results (sanctions, outcome) and key consequences or implications of the case

Eight months of imprisonment substituted with work for common welfare in a way that one day of imprisonment is substituted with 2 hours of work.

Key quotation in original language and its unofficial translation into English with reference details

N/A

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