On Tuesday, 14th November, an incident occurred in Liberland.
Liberland, as you likely know, is a territory not recognised under Croatian jurisdiction. Over the past decades, the government of the Republic of Croatia has repeatedly and categorically denied that Gornja Siga (Liberland) is, or ever has been Croatia, and that for important reasons of maintaining the political balance of powers with Serbia.
The Croatian Border Police accused Hringur, a settler in Liberland, of a misdemeanour for an obviously trivial act – making a middle finger gesture at a camera. Said camera had previously been identified by the Border Police as the property of the Croatian Forestry (Hrvatske Sume s.r.o.).
Apparently, a police officer of the Border Police saw the gesture on the camera and interpreted it as directed against the Border Police. This act was understood as vulgarity against an official institution (against the Border Police itself), leading to a charge under Article 17, paragraph 1 of Croatia's Law on Misdemeanors against Public Order and Peace:
Those who belittle or insult state authorities, i.e. official persons, on the occasion of or in connection with the performance of their duties or their lawful orders, will be punished for the violation with a fine in the amount of 700.00 to 4000 euros or a prison sentence of up to 30 days.
Let us make a few observations:
- The incident took place in Liberland, where the law of Croatia isn’t applicable
- There is no jurisdiction of the Border Police to prosecute;
- Hringur had no idea he was showing the middle finger at the police as he couldn’t know that the police would watch him through a Croatian Forestry-installed camera.
This legal ambiguity intensified when Hringur refused a 650 EUR fine, leading to an expedited court session at the Municipal Court in Osijek on the day of the accusation. The short notice for the court session raised concerns about the ability to secure adequate legal representation and whether or not this was a deliberate attempt to deny such legal counsel.
Hringur asked for a translator into Danish, whom the court couldn’t provide on such short notice. As a result, the court hearing was rescheduled for 22nd November 2023, 13:00.
Continued on Liberland.org
Source. Liberland.org
