A Croatian citizen who was arrested for using the Hitler salute after Saturday's commemoration in Bleiburg, Austria has been banned from re-entering the country, Carinthia's police said on Sunday.
“When he comes out of custody, he will immediately have to leave Austria,” police spokesman Rainier Dionisio told Austria’s APA news agency.
RELATED NEWS
The 48-year-old raised his right arm in the Nazi salute after the commemoration and on his way back from the Loibach field where it was held.
The commemoration is held annually in the field near the town of Bleiburg for soldiers of Croatia’s Nazi-allied Ustasha regime who were killed there at the end of World War II.
This year, about 450 regular and special Carinthia police officers watched the event to make sure that Austrian law was respected, including the ban to display Nazi symbols which, as of this year, include insignia of the 1941-45 Independent State of Croatia.
During last year’s commemoration, Austrian police arrested seven people for displaying banned symbols or using banned salutes.
