Communicated on 12 July 2018

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 63344/17 Viktor ZAHTILA and Goran KOLETIĆ against Croatia lodged on 22 August 2017

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The case concerns the applicants ’ complaints about the lack of an appropriate procedural response of the domestic authorities to an act of violence against them by the private parties motivated by their sexual orientation. It raises similar issues as the case of Sabalić v. Croatia (no. 50231/13, communicated on 7 January 2014). In particular, in May 2006 the applicants were attacked and beaten by a group of persons who thereby shouted various homophobic insults and threats. The attackers were identified and prosecuted in the minor offences proceedings for the breach of public peace and order. When the applicants attempted to institute the criminal proceedings for hate crime, their criminal complaint was rejected and their attempt to take over the prosecution as subsidiary prosecutors was dismissed on the grounds that a further prosecution of the attackers would run counter to the principle of ne bis in idem as established in the Court ’ s case-law in Maresti v. Croatia (no. 55759/07, §§ 55-69, 25 June 2009).

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

1. Have the State authorities complied with their procedural obligations under Articles 3 and/or 8 of the Convention, taken alone and/or in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention, concerning the violent discriminatory (homophobic) attack against the applicants (see Identoba and Others v. Georgia , no. 73235/12, §§ 65-67, 12 May 2015, and Škorjanec v. Croatia , no. 25536/14, §§ 52-57, ECHR 2017 (extracts))?

2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaints under Article 3 and/or 8 of the Convention, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?

APPENDIX

The applicants are represented before the Court by Mr N. Labavić , a lawyer practising in Zagreb.