The Rijeka County Court in Croatia, on April 29, 2026, ordered pre-trial detention for a 25-year-old Serbian national suspected of criminal damage to property and incitement to violence and hatred.
The detention was issued in absentia, as the suspect is currently unavailable to Croatian authorities and is considered to be on the run.
According to the court decision, the incident occurred on August 31, 2022, between midnight and 00:30, in Opatija, on “Marshal Tito” Street.
The case concerns a parking area of the Hotel Kristal, where a white Audi vehicle with Kosovo license plates, owned by a Kosovo citizen, was parked. The suspect allegedly used a black marker to draw a cross surrounded by four Cyrillic “S” letters on the car’s hood and wrote “Kosovo je Srbija” (“Kosovo is Serbia”) beneath it.
According to Croatian outlet Fiuman, the act caused material damage estimated at around €398.
A particularly aggravating element of the case is that the suspect allegedly filmed the entire act with his mobile phone and later posted the video on his Instagram profile.
Prosecutors argue that by publishing the video, he made publicly available content that incites violence or hatred against a group or an individual based on religion, nationality, ethnicity, language, or origin.
The court stated that the reasonable suspicion is based on a criminal report filed by the Primorje-Gorski Kotar Police Directorate, specifically the Opatija Police Station, as well as collected evidence including official records, photos of the damaged vehicle, surveillance footage from the hotel, the Instagram post, and other materials gathered during the investigation.
The court further noted that the suspect was not found at his registered residence at Hotel Opatija, had not reported to work since August 29, 2022, and left his accommodation on September 2, 2022.
On the same day, according to case files, he left the territory of Croatia via public transport through the Stara Gradiška border crossing.
He also failed to respond to a summons from the state prosecutor for initial questioning in November 2022. Croatian authorities later attempted to contact him through international legal assistance, but the competent authority in Serbia rejected the request. The case file also notes that the suspect has no registered residence in Serbia and that a national arrest warrant has been issued against him.
The pre-trial detention may last up to one month and will be calculated from the day of arrest.
The court also ruled that detention may be replaced with bail set at €5,000, provided the suspect guarantees he will not go into hiding, will not leave his residence without approval, will not obstruct the criminal proceedings, and will not commit another criminal offense.
