ZAGREB, May 16, 2018 – Five Croatian and one Slovenian national are in custody in Klagenfurt, Austria, on suspicion that they broke an Austrian law banning the display of fascist and Nazi symbols at a commemoration at Bleiburg on Saturday, Austrian media said on Wednesday.
“Five men were arrested for saluting with the so-called Hitler salute and one for wearing symbols of the SS units,” the spokeswoman for a Klagenfurt court Eva Jost-Draxl told Kronen Zeitung.
The suspects are in custody due to flight risk. A judge will decide within a fortnight whether to remand them in custody. They are facing up to ten years’ imprisonment, she said.
Local police official Michaela Kohlweiss regretted that persons under investigation for the same crime were not arrested at last year’s commemoration. “Fourteen criminal proceedings against unidentified persons are still open,” she told Kronen Zeitung.
The newspaper said the Klagenfurt court hoped this year’s strict measures against the display of banned symbols would have a lasting effect so that “the commemoration of Croatian victims can pass in a dignified manner and without a radical right-wing backdrop.”
