Gender Equality Ombudswoman, Visnja Ljubicic, has announced a possible criminal report against former member of parliament Ivan Pernar for making a report to the Zambian police in a case concerning eight Croatians, including a transgender person, charged in that country with attempted child trafficking.

Ljubicic said on Monday that under the Gender Equality Act, the ombusdman can always file a criminal or misdemeanor report when an individual act or conduct contains elements of a misdemeanor or a criminal offence.

“We believe the former MP’s statement contains elements of both a misdemeanor and a criminal offence. As a result of consultations, we are considering making a proposal for filing a criminal report for two offences – hate crime and disclosure of personal data,” Ljubicic said.

She said both offences carried a prison sentence of up to three years, and that her office was waiting for a response from the Office of the State Attorney-General (DORH) to its proposal.

Ljubicic stressed that there was also a possibility of filing a misdemeanor report for harassment, with fines ranging from €700 to €4,000.

“Calling for the prosecution of a Croatian national in another country, that has very restrictive laws, puts that national in an unfavourable position, where they face risk of imprisonment from 30 years to life, is horrific and that act can be identified as a criminal offence or a misdemeanor,” she said.

Pernar has been writing on his Facebook wall for days that he has reported to the police the Croatians arrested in Zambia. A message from him to the Zambian police has come up on social networks, and in it he informs the police that one of the arrested Croatians is a transgender person, and notes that “as far as he knows, such persons cannot adopt children from Congo.”

Speaking at the Zagreb Pride conference on Monday, Green-Left Bloc MP Ivana Kekin commented on Pernar, saying that lately we had been witnessing hate speech, incitement to persecution, and denunciation.

“All those messages are motivated by elements of hate towards others and those who are different,” she said, adding that the messages were being made by marginal politicians and radicals.