Facebook group creator detained and questioned by Croatian police

Facebook group creator detained and questioned by Croatian police – Telegraph

A man who created a Facebook group critical of Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has been detained and questioned by police. In a move that critics have said is an attempt to quash cyber political debate, Croatian authorities detained Niksa Klecak, 22, who set up a page on the social networking website called „I bet I can find 5,000 people who dislike Sanader.“ On Friday, police questioned Mr Klecak for three hours and searched his home and computer. Political analyst Jelena Lovric called the detention a „notorious abuse of police for political purposes.“ And Zoran Milanovic, the leader of the opposition Social Democrats, said that the police action threatened freedom of expression. Krunoslav Borovec, a senior police official, rejected criticism of the detention. Police acted legally, he said, because Mr Klecak’s group displayed a photo montage of Mr Sanader in a Nazi uniform. Nazi symbols are banned under Croatian law. But Mr Klecak, who is a member of the Social Democrats’ youth branch, said he was convinced that his was a „politically motivated case“. But political analysts said the case exposed officials’ fear of the internet.

siehe auch: Will Police Head ‘Remove’ Ustashi from Facebook? The Croatian police director could not say if people had been arrested earlier for posting insulting contents on the internet. Asked if the police had, before the case of Niksa Klecak, had similarly arrested people for emphasising  Nazi, fascist and Ustashi symbols, Croatian police director Vladimir Faber gave a very unclear answer. First he started talking about the police’s future actions, giving the impression that he was avoiding the question. But after reporters insisted on the question, the director said “this is only one triviality in the work of the police”. – Of course we conducted such actions. A number of charges have been filed in the past several months – Faber said without giving any example of his claims and then, although reporters had more questions, he left the news conference; PM: Milanovic’s `Satire´ is Very Dangerous. The Croatian premier said showing an edited photo of him in a Nazi uniform on Facebook is dangerous playing with totalitarianism. The Croatian premier Ivo Sanader evaluated a statement by the president of SDP (Social Democratic Party) as very dangerous. Milanovic said that the edited photo of Sanader wearing a Nazi on Facebook was satire. “I think that it is a very dangerous statement” said Sanader on the Croatian radio program “How the Cabinet Regulates”. He stressed that democracy must not be played with by glorifying totalitarianism, and that there is no satire or playing with the swastika, Nazi or Ustasha symbols. “Everything that is occurring on Facebook with those Nazi symbols, is not against the premier, it is against democracy in Croatia” said Sanader. He stressed that he personally has nothing to do with the actions of the police in this case; 11,400 Croatian PM Haters on Facebook. I hate you, Sanader, and that is my right – is only one of the comments by the new group of haters of Croatia’s prime minister.