Simunic fined over pro-Nazi chants

Croatia defender Josip Simunic was fined 25,000 kunas (3,200 euros, $4,400) for his pro-Nazi chants that marred the country's World Cup qualification celebrations, prosecutors said on Thursday. After Croatia's 2-0 win in the play-off second leg against Iceland late Tuesday, Australian-born Simunic took over a microphone at Zagreb's Maksimir stadium and shouted four times "For the Homeland" (Za Dom) while the fans chanted back "Ready" (Spremni). The salute was used by Croatia's pro-Nazi Ustasha regime which during World War II killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, anti-fascist Croatians, Roma and others in concentration camps. Simunic was "inciting racial hatred and harassing other participants of a public event" and was thus given a maximum fine pursuant to the law on the prevention of violence at sports events, a prosecutors statement said. He was aware that the chant symbolised the official salute during Croatia's World War II totalitarian regime, it said. Simunic had argued that he had been motivated "purely by (his) love for the (Croatian) people and the homeland". "These are the only reasons which, in an emotional moment, overtook me and why I started these chants with the fans," the 35-year-old Dinamo Zagreb captain explained in a statement. Simunic denied "any political context", saying the chanting had not been inspired "by hate and destruction". His move was condemned by President Ivo Josipovic, the government and Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac. In the past, the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) has condemned fans' pro-Nazi attitudes and their use of Ustasha insignia and Nazi salutes. World football's governing body FIFA has on several occasions fined the HNS over Croatian fans' racist behaviour. Source:AFP