ZAGREB, September 17, 2019 – The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zoran Milanović, said on Tuesday that Index news website reporter Gordan Duhaček was reported, prosecuted and sentenced over tweets in which he had mocked the police, claiming that the order for his arrest had come from the top and that it was a political matter.
“This is not about the police, this is about the HDZ, the evil mother of Croatian democracy and an obstacle to Croatia’s future,” Milanovic told reporters, noting that such events pushed the Croatian society backwards.
A subcultural expression such as ACAB (All Cops are Bastards) is now gaining publicity and becoming a part of the mainstream, he said.
The police consider it a threat to the order and an offence to themselves and that is exactly what they are now about to get, Milanovic said, noting that this would cause revolt among ordinary citizens because it was not ordinary police officers who felt offended but the regime.
Recalling the public outcry of two weeks ago over statements by minority member of parliament Milorad Pupovac, Milanović wondered why Pupovac had not been arrested over those statements as people got arrested for writing graffiti on buildings and for minor offences.
These are not double standards, these are schizophrenic standards, he said.
A few days ago, a group of youths shouted and called for lynching an entire ethnic group at a football match, Milanovic said, wondering if that insulted the moral feelings of citizens.
“Isn’t that incitement to hate and why was not anything done about it, are those who lead the police afraid?” Milanovic said, describing Duhaček’s rendition of a patriotic song over which he was reported for insulting the moral values and feelings of citizens as a parody.
“I’m not calling for burning flags or mocking the national anthem because that is unacceptable, but this (Duhaček’s case) was a type of free speech and mockery for which citizens cannot be prosecuted and arrested,” he said, calling for amending the law on offences which dates back to 1990.
“If (Duhaček) really contacted the police on the previous day and that was recorded, why wasn’t he detained then? That can be easily established,” Milanovic said, adding that police conduct in the case was wrong and that “the regime is losing its sense of reality”.
More news about Zoran Milanović can be found in the Politics section.
