The publication of photographs of participants in previous Gay Pride parades in Zagreb on a website may constitute a crime of racial and other discrimination, so the police will launch a criminal investigation in coordination with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of the Interior announced on Tuesday.
Unidentified authors of the website at www.homopopis.com have published 82 photographs of people who participated in previous Gay Pride parades in Zagreb and have invited visitors to post photographs of homosexuals and lesbians on the site, saying that their aim is "to protect citizens of Croatia by drawing their attention to homosexuals in society." They claim that all the photographs posted on the website were taken at public gatherings and that therefore no one's privacy is violated.
The website was launched after a Gay Pride parade in Split last Saturday and before such a parade in Zagreb this Saturday. Eight people were injured in Split when anti-parade demonstrators attacked the parade participants by throwing stones, tomatoes and other objects at them; 137 rioters were arrested.
The Split parade was guarded by 688 police officers, and the Ministry said that the Zagreb parade would be even better protected.
Under the Penal Code, a crime of spreading racial or other discrimination carries a prison term of up to three years.
Interior Ministry spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said that the police had notified the Agency for Personal Data Protection about the launch of the website in question.
