- The first political trial of journalists in Croatia was initiated in 1996. Franjo Tudman sued Viktor Ivancic and Marinko Culic. The indictment issued by the state prosecutor, with Tudman's approval, charged Ivancic and Culic with slander and defamation of the president of the Croatia, because of articles and photomontages published in issue 554 of Feral, which dissect and mock Tudman's proposal for transformation of the Memorial complex commemorating victims of Ustashe terror in Jasenovac.
The trial drew a lot of attention, both in Croatia and abroad, and judge Martin Mrcela acquitted defendants of all charges. The state prosecutor appealed the acquittal, the district court annulled Mrcela's verdict and returned the case to him for a retrial. The second time Mrcela confirmed his initial verdict and this judicial tennis could have continued for a while if the slandered and defamed plaintiff hadn't died, so that the state prosecutor withdrew the charges.
- Another Tudman made the highest damages demand from Feral for suffered spiritual pain. Nevenka Tudman, the Daughter, demanded 4 million kunas from Feral as compensation for spiritual pain suffered because of the satirical article "Sacred name Sutjeska", and a series of articles in which we informed the public how Nevenka obtained commercial space in the building owned by the Ministry of Defense by circumventing the official procedure. At the same time Nevenka filed a suit alleging injury to dignity and honor. However, when she found out that she was obliged to pay enormous judicial taxes if she were to keep the initial demand for damages, she reduced the demand to 600,000 kunas.
These days, Nevenka Tudman is again in court in connection with Feral, but this time as a defendant, in connection with the article from 2000 in which we claimed that she illegally obtained business for her company.
- The second spot on the list of Feral's record holders is reserved for Dr. Josip Husar, who demands from this daily 2 million kunas in damages in a series of suits that are still winding their way through courts, in connection with articles about the death of six children after heart operations performed in KBC Rebro. Although parents of some of the little patients and his colleagues charged Husar with negligence, he nevertheless filed a suit against Feral and the suit was classified as urgent.
Tomislav Mercep is also one of the top plaintiffs, with as many as seven suits against Feral in connection with articles about crimes committed in Pakracka Poljana by the units under his command. And one must admit that Mercep did score some successes. For example, in June 1995, Gordana Jalsovecki, judge of municipal court in Zagreb fined Feral 130,000 kunas for the article "Killing Fields in Pakracka Poljana", by Drago Hedl, in which, as the judge rightfully noted, the journalist "makes baseless assertions about mass graves and a concentration camp near Pakrac". The verdict was reached based on Mercep's statement, which the court "found absolutely believable, as it was clear and convincing".
Mercep was a hero of another bizarre Feral's experience with Croatian judiciary. Namely, Mladen Katunaric, judge at the time and later a president of the Split Criminal Court for many years, fined Feral without bothering to question the defendant. The magazine was ordered to pay Mercep the maximum possible fine of 49,000 kunas, all of that because of a charming front page with a photomontage of a man with Mercep's face urinating in a flower pot. After numerous appeals by Feral's attorney Vesna Alaburic, Katunaric's verdict was first annulled, then confirmed, until finally on March 10, 1999 the statute of limitations expired. On the other hand, Tomislav Mercep has very likely been indicted by the Hague Tribunal.
- Miroslav Kutle, the tycoon under state protection during HDZ's rule, in his suit demanded 1 million kunas in damages in connection with the series of articles that gave a detailed description of his, euphemistically speaking, unusual rise to financial stardom under HDZ's rule. In the meantime, Kutle has become a protagonist of numerous trials, as a defendant, so that he hasn't had time to dedicate himself to this suit against Feral.
- Potentially most dangerous verdict for Feral was issued in October 2001 by the Zagreb County Court. The verdict ordered Feral to pay Zeljko Olujic and Marica Mestrovic all together about 200,000 kunas, because of which the court blocked bank accounts of this magazine on March 1, 2002. Olujic was awarded 52,910.78 kunas because he suffered horrendous spiritual pain on July 8, 1996, after the publication of the article "Piano for Aryan Croatia", in which Viktor Ivancic comments on Olujic's assertions published in Slobodna Dalmacija that "Ustashe were not fascists", that in WWII "there were no victims of fascism", that "Jews provoked Nazis to exterminate them" and so on. By the way, Olujic represented most of plaintiffs in suits against Feral.
Marica Mestrovic was awarded 139,253.83 Feral's kunas because in November 1995 on the pages of this weekly distinguished art historian Dr. Zvonko Makovic wrote that she was incompetent to run her father's [Ivan Mestrovic, a famous sculptor] foundation, as she did not have suitable education. The court, however, begged to differ as Marica Mestrovic "grew up surrounded by artists".
- Croatian judges tried to destroy Feral not only as judges, but also as plaintiffs in several cases. One of them was initiated by Andjelka Radja, a judge from Split. Namely, in the article "Otherworldly Contract", published on May 25, 1998, Feral described how judge Radja, in a trial that took place in 1998, on several occasions summoned Mirko Buic, father of Jagoda Buic, as a witness, although he had died in 1968. As Mirko Buic, naturally, failed to appear in court, judge Radja found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded some of Buic's property to him.
Her colleague Josko Biliskov, judge of the Criminal Court in Trogir, ordered Feral to pay 85,000 kunas to Ms. Radja. A higher court later returned most of her father's property to Jagoda Buic. However, Andjelka Radja has never returned those 85,000 kunas to Feral.
Damir Cudina and Teo Karabotic Milovac, judges of the Commercial Court in Split, received 80,000 kunas each from Feral because of all together 20 words in one article about the state of judiciary in Split. Defamatory statements boiled down to the assertion that one of them was "an example of how not to write verdicts", and that his motto was "everything for Croatia", while the other one was "according to many, a superficial judge".
- Jasna Gustek, judge of the Municipal Court in Zagreb, awarded 150,000 kunas to Andrija Hebrang, former health minister. The fine included interest so that Feral was obliged to pay 200,000 kunas in connection with the series of articles criticizing the situation in the national health care system during Hebrang's tenure. Higher courts reduced the fine, but Hebrang nevertheless worked hard for his money.
- Izabela Skokandic filed numerous suits against Feral. Ms. Skokandic is a librarian from Korcula. In the nineties she dumped into garbage ideologically unsuitable books by Wilde, Andric, Copic, Seliskar... The article about that scandalous act published in Feral was written by Milan Kangrga, a distinguished philosopher. Skokandic sued him, the Zagreb Municipal Court reprimanded Kangrga and ordered him to pay 1,220,000 kunas. The county court annulled the verdict and ordered retrial, which hasn't taken place to this day. On the other hand, Feral had to pay Skokandic 30,000 kunas.
- Feral was sued for spiritual pain by (we mention only better known individuals) Hrvoje Sarinic, former head of Tudman's cabinet, Dino Mikulandra, first editor of Kutle's Slobodna Dalmacija after HDZ's coup, Josip Jovic, also HDZ's editor in Slobodna, Rikard Gumzej, Tudman's fashion advisor, Mladen Naletilic Tuta and Vinko Martinovic Stela, found guilty of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal, Anto Djapic, a small-scale swindler [Feral revealed that Djapic, the leader of the neo-Ustashe Croatian Party of Rights, HSP, had plagiarized his Master's thesis], Ivan Tolj, general and poet, Neven Barac, former director of the Dubrovacka Bank, Nedjeljko Mihanovic, distinguished HDZ member, Ivan Bobetko, the Son [of general Janko Bobetko, indicted by the Hague Tribunal], Igor Stimac, former soccer player and bookie...
- The true nature of numerous suits and trials against Feral was revealed by Krunoslav Olujic, former president of the Supreme Court. In an interview given to Feral in September 1998, Olujic revealed that Hrvoje Sarinic and Ivic Pasalic, advisors to Franjo Tudman, demanded from him on several occasions to destroy the magazine.
On that occasion Olujic revealed that Milan Vukovic, also a former president of the Supreme Court, and Smiljko Sokol, former president of the Constitutional Court, also attended meetings that were convened to discuss strategy for the destruction of Feral. Olujic claimed that these meetings were the direct consequence of Tudman's dissatisfaction with Feral's editorial policy.
- After the change of government in January 2000, Smiljan Reljic, former chief of SZUP [one of Tudman's secret services] joined the long list of "insulted". Reljic is better known as the man in charge of spying on and wiretapping conversations of Feral's journalists.
Reljic sued Heni Erceg, Feral's editor-in-chief, as he felt "slandered and defamed" by the editorial Heni wrote after reading the police file compiled by Reljic's spies.
- In the end, the new authorities finally established "anti-Tudman precedent" regarding the attitude of the authorities with respect to the journalists. In early April Zeljka Antunovic, Minister of Defense in the Croatian government, requested from the state prosecutor to initiate an investigation against Ivica Djikic, editor of Feral Tribune, under suspicion that he revealed military secrets. Namely, in March Feral published the document revealing that the explosion in the military dump "Duboki Jarak" near Zagreb, in April of 1994, released more than 2 tons of deadly poisons, which had been hidden from the public for years. General Josip Lucic, current Chief of Staff of the Croatian Army was in charge of suppressing information about this accident. This reflex of the "anti-Tudman" authorities was best illustrated by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense: "The prosecutor is doing his duty!"
