Despite numerous condemnations and calls for the attack in Bratunac to be investigated as a hate crime, the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina did not answer whether it made a prosecutorial decision and qualified the attack on Osman Mehanovic, who was severely beaten on Friday, June 23rd.
After the police officers from Bratunac identified three minors who are linked to the attack on the cameraman and musician, nineteen-year-old Osman Mehanovic from Bratunac, the District Public Prosecutor’s Office, responsible for this place, in its reply to the journalists only stated how it will respond within the legal deadline.
The District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina did not say whether they were younger or older minors, whether they had previous offenses or were liable, and whether and how the attack from last week in Bratunac was qualified.
The coalition for the fight against hate speech and hate crimes, which is signed by activist, non-governmental, and media organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), called on the competent institutions to urgently sanction and qualify the attack on Mehanovic as a hate crime.
“During 2023, we witnessed an increase in the presence of hate speech in the public space, as well as criminal acts committed out of hatred, after which the public was mostly informed about ‘convictions’, but not about the sanctions that the institutions are obliged to implement,” the Coalition stated.
The Coalition emphasized that “it is necessary for the institutions to deal more seriously with the phenomena of increased hate speech in public space, hate crimes, prevention, but also sanctions, which will send a clear message to citizens that violence in communities in BiH will not be tolerated.”, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
