The Interior Ministry has been exerting pressure with the aim of diverting the public attention from an investigation into the death of six-year-old Afghan girl Madina Hussiny, said non-governmental organisations “Are you Syrious” and the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS), as well as the Hussiny family’s attorneys, at a news conference on Wednesday.
The girl died after being hit by a train near the border in eastern Croatia in November last year, when, according to her mother, the police ignored the family’s claim for asylum in Croatia and forced them to walk back to Serbia. Her death prompted the family to sue unidentified members of the Croatian police through a legal team from Croatia.
The police have been putting pressure on NGOs for some time, particularly in the last two weeks since the girl’s family arrived in Croatia, Gordan Bosanac of the CMS told a news conference. The day before the conference, the police called the CMS members into the police station for interviews, which they interpreted as police pressure and an attempt at intimidation.
The Hussiny family is currently in the transit centre in Tovarnik, Croatia, where they are seeking asylum and international protection.
The family’s attorneys, Sanja Bezbradica-Jelavic and Ivo Jelavic, said that police had banned them from contacting Madina’s family despite a power of attorney which the family had previously signed in front of five witnesses in Sid, Serbia, authorising the attorneys to legally represent them.
Jelavic said it was unheard of that the Interior Ministry would prevent the communication between a detained person and their chosen lawyer. He concluded that this was an attempt to shift the public attention from the investigation into Madina’s death.
The Croatian authorities do not recognise the power of attorney because it was signed in Serbia, where the family had stayed in the days following the incident.
“The Ministry of the Interior is evidently pressuring us and the attorneys with the aim of deporting the family and stopping the proceedings the Hussiny family has launched against the police,” said Bosanac.
The attorneys also reported a phone call from an unknown person who inquired about Sanja Bezbradica-Jelavic’s ethnic background, which they considered to be an act of pressure as well.
Bosanac said he would request a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the case and warn the European Commission that Croatia’s planned entry into the Schengen area was incompatible with the police practice demonstrated in this case.
