Less than a month has passed between the filing of this indictment and the first-instance verdict in the misdemeanor proceedings concerning the same incident, in which it was ruled that both Melita and her attacker were equally guilty.
An indictment has been filed at the Municipal Court in Zadar against the first defendant, Ivan Vrsaljko, for the criminal offence of coercion against a person performing duties of public interest under Article 315b, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, and against the second defendant, Iva Perić, for the criminal offence under Article 139, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code, committed to the detriment of Melita Vrsaljko, a journalist for the portal Faktograf and the Climate Portal.
The article under which Ivan Vrsaljko is charged stipulates: “Whoever, by force or by threat of the imminent use of force, prevents a person performing duties of public interest or a public official performing a public service from carrying out their duties, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to three years.”
The article under which his daughter, Iva Perić, is charged concerns serious threats of death or causing grievous bodily harm, and also carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, according to N1 Info.
The defendants are charged for events that took place in the summer of last year. Melita Vrsaljko, together with a cameraman, attempted to prepare a report on an illegal waste dump in Nadin when they were first verbally and then physically attacked on public property by Ivan Vrsaljko, the owner of the land they intended to film. The attacker tried to seize her mobile phone, which Melita tried to defend herself from.
The day after the attack by Ivan Vrsaljko, the attacker’s daughter broke into Melita’s own home, physically assaulted her and began to choke her, attempting to take the mobile phone containing the recording of the attack from the previous day.
Although they share a surname and are distantly related, Melita Vrsaljko has no private contact with the individuals who attacked her. The motive for the attacks was her journalistic work—specifically, an attempt to conceal the location of a developing illegal dump on land used by this family.
Interestingly, less than a month passed between the filing of this indictment and the first-instance verdict in the misdemeanor proceedings concerning the same event, in which Judge Maria Stopfer Mišetić ruled in early November that both Melita Vrsaljko and her attacker, Ivan Vrsaljko, were equally guilty of disturbing public order and peace.
The goal of both attacks was to prevent her from doing her journalistic work, as well as to intimidate and silence her—attempts carried out through physical violence, threats, seizing equipment, and harassment through phone calls and messages. In addition to the misdemeanor case, which resulted in an unfavourable first-instance verdict condemned by journalist organisations, Melita Vrsaljko, with the support of Faktograf, filed a private criminal complaint against her attackers.
That the misdemeanor proceedings were heading in the wrong direction is confirmed by this indictment filed at the end of November, which finally places the attack in the proper context: an attack on a journalist while performing her professional duties, Faktograf reports.