In this verdict the ECHR considered the case of a Roma with Croatian citizenship who became the victim of an act of racially motivated violence in 1999. Despite the fact that Šečić had gone to the police and to the courts, the authorities neglected to solve and prosecute the case appropriately.

The judges of the European Court of Human Rights stated that ‘when investigating violent incidents, State authorities have the additional duty to take all reasonable steps to unmask any racist motive and to establish whether or not ethnic hatred or prejudice may have played a role in the events’.