Croatian Journalist Fined for ‘Anti-Police’ Twitter Message

Gordan Duhacek, a journalist from Croatian website Index.hr, was fined around 100 euros at Zagreb's Misdemeanour Court on Monday for posted a Twitter message in July last year, which discussed police treatment of arrested people and contained the anti-police acronym 'ACAB' ('All Coppers are Bastards').

Duhacek was arrested at Zagreb airport when he was about to leave Croatia on Monday morning and spent the day in custody before the hearing.

He also faces a court judgment this week for another Twitter message he posted, a satirical rewrite of the lyrics of a Croatian patriotic song.

"They charged me for one tweet that said 'ACAB'. And another thing, I am charged because I satirically published a version of [Croatian patriotic song] 'Vila Velebita' which refers to faeces spilling into the Adriatic," Duhacek said on Monday evening outside the Misdemeanour Court building when he was released.

"I am accused [in the case of the second tweet] of offending citizens' moral feelings of citizens - they are offended by the rewriting of an old song that nobody sings," he added.

He said that the verdict on the 'Vila Velebita' tweet will be issued in three days.

According to a Croatian law dating back to the 1970s, which was quoted by police while giving their explanation for the 'ACAB' arrest, "whoever discredits or insults public authorities or officials while carrying out, or in connection with carrying out their duties or their lawful orders, shall be punished by a fine equivalent in the national currency of 50 to 200 Deutschmarks or imprisonment for up to 30 days".

Incredible. Croatian police arrested @indexhr journalist Gordan Duhaček (@Prajdizan) over two tweets. One featured the acronym "ACAB" and the other one is a...