Croatia, Justice and Rape Cases

[carthan81]

I am totally shocked at this news story...

Rape accusation by US athlete sparks Croatian sex crime debate
www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2057

"The main problem is that rape is not seen here as a really serious crime."

...are women in Croatia really treated as such second-rate citizens?

[EMIZ]

I'm not sure it has to do with rape not being viewed as serious. For all my problems here, I wouldn't say I have ever met anybody that primitive.

However well connected people with money he can do whatever they want.

Croatia can be summed up very easily.

Everything in Croatia is illegal; if you have money everything is legal.
It also doesn’t help that ever single public service here is manned by incompetent fools, the police force is one of the worst services of all.
Croats are so fearful of police, I have never seen anything like it, Police here think they are gods, and they do not like being told by people like me that they are indeed public servants who are being paid to serve me.

This case is very sad.

[Shannon]

"Appeal court verdicts in recent months include reducing sentences of convicted rapists because one victim was hitchhiking late at night, another was seen kissing her rapist in a public place, and a third was deemed not to have offered sufficient physical resistance. A 62- year- old rapist had his sentence cut because, among other factors, he was a father of three and had "made a contribution" to Croatia's independence in the 1990s. Another's military service in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s was taken into account. "


This was the part that shocked and angered me the most. Justice for everyone? Apparantly not.

[midge]

Independence and impartiality......that's what Croatian judicary has to strive to. Still a long way to go....seems so

[Ghost Writer]

Listen to this one....


I know of three guys that were brought up on rape charges. The court could not figure it out.... it was the typical he said, she said.

The 3 of them got 8 months.

I have also heard of rape sentences being as little as 6 months.... this has to change.

It is true you can buy yourself out of some illegal situtations.

What is not true is the Croatian people fearing the police.... just not true. These police officers live in the neighborhoods that they patrol.
Police do act like they are gods but.... it still does not make the average person afraid of them.

I have friends that have cursed police officers out. The police stop them for some parking or driving violation and my friends yell at the police. We are not afraid. They are not KGB, they are not going to bring you in and beat you up....

[carthan81]

I'm generally scared of most European police - especially when they're waving small and/or large firearms in your face and shouting in an unfamiliar language!!
I don't think a single person in Britain is afraid of the police these days - Especially the young louts that rule the streets.

But this lack of legal fairness to women (or lack of fairness at all) has to be about the general view of society?
Or does the population just sit quietly whilst officials (and people with power) do whatever they want to do, without regard for anybody else?