The Coalition against Discrimination welcomes the judgment of the Municipal Court in Rijeka by which the Pastor Franjo Jurcevic was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for incitement to discrimination during the 2010 Pride Parade in Belgrade. This sentence unequivocally confirms that incitement to discrimination and violence against any social group must not be tolerated, and that any hate speech will be penalised.

The procedure against the pastor from Kastav near Rijeka was instigated after he had published an article on his blog in which he supported violence in Belgrade during the Pride Parade, opposed to the Parade participants’ right of assembly and called them derogatory names. The pastor said in the text that holding the Pride Parade in Belgrade was the "proof that moral freaks and psychopaths have been increasingly dominating the media, streets, institutions, cities..." and that "the Belgrade citizens have shown what they think of these psychopaths", and that he was sorry for the injured policemen, but they should have pulled back to allow "the normal people to discuss for a while with these diseased individuals."

The Coalition against Discrimination believes that this judgment coming from Croatia on the second anniversary of the adoption of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, is a serious reminder for the national courts and other independent bodies that they have a positive obligation to protect the rights of LGBT community without exception, especially in the context of the recent, publicly announced, withdrawal of the lawsuit against the Metropolitan Amfilohije Radovic.

We recall that on the basis of a complaint received from Labris and 25 citizens of Serbia, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality established in early March that the Metropolitan Radovic had used hate speech against the LGBT community during the 2010 Pride Parade, but only a few days after publishing her decision, she publicly renounced the right to file a lawsuit against him.

The Coalition against Discrimination points out that pursuant to Article 13 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, the Metropolitan Radovic’s hate speech may qualify, on several grounds, as a severe form of discrimination, because it was presented through public media (Article 13, paragraph 3), repeated several times over a longer period (Article 13, paragraph 6), incited hatred and intolerance (Article 13, paragraph 1), and significantly contributed to the development of severe consequences for discriminated persons, other persons and property (Article 13, paragraph 7), and therefore we believe that a civil lawsuit can be filed in this case, which is almost identical to the case of Pastor Jurcevic.

The following organisations, members of the Coalition against Discrimination, are signing this statement: Center for Advanced Legal Studies, Civil Rights Defenders, Praxis, Anti-Trafficking Centre, Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia (CHRIS Network), Association of Students with Disabilities, Gayten LGBT and Regional Center for Minorities.

Download: Bill of Indictment of the Municipal Court of Rijeka

Download: Judgement of the Municipal Court of Rijeka