A-HSP president Dražen Keleminec was arrested on Saturday.
President of Indigenous Croatian Party of Rights (HSP-A) Dražen Keleminec was arrested after a protest which was held on Saturday in the centre of Zagreb. He was detained, along with four other protesters, for violating public order, confirmed the Zagreb Police Department, reports Večernji List on December 17, 2016.
“Five people have been brought to the police station due to possible misdemeanour offences. Most likely, these are offenses against public order and peace. One of them is Dražen Keleminec”, confirmed the duty officer of the Zagreb Police.
The protest, organized by A-HSP, took place on Saturday morning outside the offices of the Serbian National Council at Gajeva Street in Zagreb. About two hundred people participated in the protest. The alleged reason for their gathering was a recently adopted decision by a parliamentary committee to remove the memorial plaque which was recently unveiled at Jasenovac in the honour of fallen soldiers, members of HOS forces who died during the Homeland War in the 1990s. The plaque is controversial due to the “For Homeland Ready” inscription. The slogan was used during the Second World War by the Independent State of Croatia, am Ustasha puppet state established by Germans and Italians on the territory of Croatia. The location itself is also controversial, since Jasenovac was the site of a large concentration camp during the Second World War.
Parliamentary Committee on Constitution and Political System concluded that the plaque represented an insult to the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp and to all the victims of the Ustasha regime. The Committee called on authorities to “take action” which will protect the dignity of victims and their memory.
According to reports, today’s gathering was secured by strong police forces. The protesters chanted the “For Homeland Ready” slogan and walked in a procession to the SDP headquarters. The protesters occasionally blocked the traffic.
The event ended with the Ustasha salute. Keleminec concluded his speech with “For homeland!” to which he received the reply from other protesters “Ready!” After that, the police arrested him, while the others were detained for insulting police officers and attacking a police officer.
A-HSP is a minor political party, one of numerous HSP parties which currently do not have a single MP in Parliament.
