ZAGREB, 6 Jan 2021 - A man who attacked a Croat family from Subotica has been convicted to three months house arrest, the Croatian National Council (HNV) said on Thursday, underscoring that this is the first conviction for an ethnically motivated crime against members of the Croat minority in Serbia.
HNV recalled that the incident occurred on 2 August 2021 in downtown Subotica when the man, identified as B.P., hurled several insults based on ethnic grounds and then physically attacked Zoran Brajković, throwing him to the ground.
HNV welcomes the professionalism of the High Court in Subotica, underscoring that this is the "first conviction that has had a positive result related to the prosecution of an ethnically-motivated crime against members of the Croat community in Serbia."
HNV recalled that after the incident occurred, local media and officials in Subotica reacted with untruths, denying that the crime was ethnically motivated.
The police too then did not qualify the incident as being ethnically motivated which hampered the entire investigation, HNV added.
HNV hopes that now, after this conviction, other ethnically motivated attacks against the Croat community will be resolved positively.
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