ZAGREB, 5 Dec, 2021 - A Zagreb County Court investigating judge ordered on Saturday evening that Marko Francišković be remanded in custody on suspicion of public incitement to terrorism, while Natko Kovačević was released pending completion of the investigation.

Kovačević was ordered to report to a police station once a week.

The State Attorney's Office earlier demanded investigative custody for the two suspects after launching an investigation into their role in public incitement to terrorism at recent demonstrations against COVID passes.

Prosecutors claim that Francišković and Kovaćević," dissatisfied with the work of state authorities, acted with the aim of seriously undermining the fundamental constitutional, political, economic and social structures of the Republic of Croatia."

The suspects attended unlawful protest rallies where they spoke against measures undertaken by the national COVID-19 crisis management team to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and posted footage of those rallies and other statements on online platforms.

Prosecutors also say that the suspects called on citizens to physically attack other persons, including government and parliament officials, to occupy the HRT public broadcaster and other public facilities and infrastructure, and to use violence to overthrow the present constitutional order and democratically elected government.

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ZAGREB, 20 Nov, 2021 - Protesters against COVID-19 certificates on Saturday evening moved from Zagreb's central square to the part of the city where the HRT public broadcaster is located, demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live and calling for an end to "censorship" by the HRT.

Dissatisfied with the way the HRT covered their protest in the central city square at 3 p.m., the protesters shouted "We want elections", "Referendum and people's rule", "Thieves", "Treason", "God's law is above all laws", demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live.

The protesters were met by riot police, with a dozen police vehicles blocking access to the HRT building.

Some of the protesters demanded to see the editor in chief and that the protest be broadcast live, claiming that the HRT "cannot be a factory of censorship" and that "the HRT is lying to the Croatian people, spreading fear and enemy propaganda."

Claiming that they did not want to force anything on anyone and did not want others to do it to them, and shouting "We want truth" and "People rules" and singing patriotic songs, they continued to demand a response by the HRT, saying that "people want to say what they think" and the public broadcaster has the duty to report about it.

"This is no vaccine, this is poison", someone in the crowd could be heard saying while some protesters said the world was ruled by "Bill Gates, Talmudists and Soros's followers".

An HRT employee told the protesters that there was no one in the building they could talk to, to which they responded with shouts however the protest continued mostly without incidents and around 8 p.m. the protesters started to disperse.

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ZAGREB, 20 Nov, 2021 - RTL television reporter Goran Latković was attacked during a protest against mandatory COVID-19 certificates in Zagreb on Saturday while covering the event.

At the protest, which draw several thousand people from all around the country, Latković was attacked from behind and he sustained two blows to the head, rib cage and elbow.

As he was attacked from behind, the reporter did not see his attackers.

He confirmed to Hina that he would report the incident to the police.

The RTL television reported about the incident involving its reporter.

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ZAGREB, 20 Nov, 2021 - Several thousand people from all over Croatia arrived in Zagreb on Saturday for a protest against mandatory COVID-19 certificates and epidemiological restrictions in force.

The Zagreb city police department said earlier in the day that the protest had not been announced.

"I believe scientist Gordan Lauc", "No to blind belief in authorities", "Live and let others live" were some of the messages on banners carried by the protesters who gathered in two squares, Trg Francuske republike and Trg žrtava fašizma, before starting their march towards the city's central Trg Bana Josipa Jelačića square.

Participants in the protest, which is also called the Silent White March on social networks, want the government to abolish COVID-19 certificates, which prove one's vaccination against or recovery from COVID-19 and which have become obligatory for employees of government and public institutions as well as everyone else entering those institutions.

Zagreb police said the organisers of the protest had not asked for permission to stage the event so the police would film its participants.

Before the protest, some of its participants said that citizens who do not have COVID-19 certificates are being unconstitutionally and unlawfully excluded from public life and prevented from going to work or school.

"It is our civic duty to oppose discrimination against any person, social divisions and the use of this discriminatory certificate as grounds for that," reads a statement whose authors identify themselves as citizens, participants of the Silent White March.

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ZAGREB, 18 Sept, 2021 - Freedom Festival 2.0, a protest rally organised by the Rights and Freedoms Initiative, started on Saturday in Zagreb's Ban Josip Jelačić Square, with several hundred people rallying for the second time in a month to express their dissatisfaction with COVID-19 epidemiological restrictions.

The protesters carried banners expressing opposition to vaccination and decisions by the national COVID-19 response team.

The organisers said that "most people now realise that COVID-19 has been misused for political ends that include the introduction of an entire set of measures and decisions that cause unprecedented damage to humans and benefit only smaller groups in positions of immense power."

There was a strong police presence at the rally.

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