Croatia

Mr. Šemso Šečić was subjected to a physical assault by two strangers carrying wooden planks. The men shouted racist abuse during the attack, indicating a motive based on ethnic hatred for Mr Šečić ‘s Roma origin. Despite the severity and racist movitvation of the attack, the police failed to properly investigate. The case highlighted a wider problem with the failure to investigate hate crimes in Croatia.

On 16th June 2009, Danijel Đurđević—alongside his mother Katica Đurđević—were brutally beaten. They alleged that the attack had been carried out by Croatian police.

In its judgment, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the state had failed in its duty to carry out an investigation into allegations of ill-treatment by state officials. The state attorney general had lacked both transparency and independence.

The allegation of police ill-treatment has still never been properly investigated - along with three other similar cases, where violations were found by the European Court.