Consular assistance to the Croatian football supporters arrested in Greece will be increased and the Croatian government is repairing the damage caused by President Zoran Milanović's statements about Greece, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Wednesday.

Ninety-eight Dinamo Zagreb supporters were arrested in Athens last week after an AEK supporter was killed in riots ahead of a match. They are accused of 11 criminal and misdemeanour offences and special emphasis has been placed on an investigation into the killing.

“A three-member panel of judges will decide in the days ahead whether there will be a criminal prosecution, whether (the charges) will be dropped or whether it will be a misdemeanour,” Grlić Radman said on Croatian Television, adding that “the physical evidence and witnesses are there, therefore the trial should be held there” and that “had this happened in Croatia, the rioters would have been detained in Croatia.”

As for the arrested supporters’ parents concerns about their safety in Greek prisons, the minister said the Croatian government had requested “a guarantee for their safety” from the Greek authorities.

“We will increase consular assistance with more staff so they can constantly visit them and so they feel protected and safe, and so that the guards in that prison system also feel and see that the Croatian government cares about Croatian citizens.”

“We expect” the supporters’ right to an equitable trial to be honoured, Grlić Radman said. “Greece is a democratic state, it has a legal system. Unfortunately, (Milanović) said it was not. We are now trying to annul the damage he caused. It is a signatory to all conventions, a member of the European Union and NATO, our ally.”

He called out the president for “causing a lot of damage” and “diminishing all the efforts” of the Croatian government and diplomacy with his statements. He said Milanović could have called Greek officials and “contributed to the best possible solution to this situation.”

Milanović said earlier the Croatian supporters were treated as prisoners of war in Greece and that the way the Greek authorities were dealing with them had nothing to do with the law, democracy or respect for human rights.

Grlić Radman said their parents could rely on the Croatian Foreign Ministry, diplomacy and government, telling them to “trust” the Croatian government, “not little political parties and their representatives who are parasitizing on this case.”