ZAGREB, May 2, 2018 - Pop singer Marko Perković Thompson was acquitted pending appeal by Slunj Misdeameanour Court on Wednesday on charges of disturbing the peace by using the salute "For the Homeland Ready" during a ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the military operation Storm.
In the judgement, presiding Judge Nada Turkalj said that by performing the song with the salute "For the Homeland Ready," Thompson did not incite hate on ethnic or religious grounds, even though that salute was used during the totalitarian regime of the WWII Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and its fascist ideology.
She underscored that the evidence did not prove that Perković had disturbed the peace because the lyric of the song "Bojna Čavoglave", in which the salute is used, is in fact just as it was recorded on an official record released by Croatia Records. "The performance didn't result in any breach of the peace and it wasn't backed by any political or other messages that could have disturbed citizens at the concert or beyond," said the judge.
Thompson's defence attorney Davorin Karačić told reporters after the judgment that the salute in Thompson's song cannot be interpreted as exclusively related to the NDH totalitarian regime.
"The expression is not contentious and only the circumstances surrounding it can be contentious. The expression 'For the Homeland Ready' can be used in different circumstances, it can be contentious, but in the Homeland War it was an expression of rebellion and a call to mobilisation, a soldiers' chant to scare off the enemy, and this 'For the Homeland Ready' has nothing to do with the one glorifying the NDH," Karačić said.
