FIRST SECTION
CASE OF ZINAIĆ v. CROATIA
(Application no. 35519/21)
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
5 February 2026
 
 
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Zinaić v. Croatia,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Frédéric Krenc, President,
 Davor Derenčinović,
 Alain Chablais, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 35519/21) against the Republic of Croatia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 5 July 2021 by a Croatian national, Mr Danijel Zinaić (“the applicant”), who was born in 1988, lives in Njivice and was represented by Mr V. Vladika, a lawyer practising in Rijeka;
the decision to give notice of the complaint concerning the right not to be tried or punished twice to the Croatian Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent Ms Š. Stažnik, and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 15 January 2026,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The case concerns the applicant’s allegation that he had been convicted of the same offence twice, first in minor-offence proceedings and then in criminal proceedings. It raises an issue under Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention. 2. On 2 March 2017 the applicant was found guilty and fined 100 euros (EUR) in minor-offence proceedings of disturbing public peace and order contrary to section 6 of the Minor Offences against Public Order and Peace Act, inter alia, by shouting and hitting a person, M.P., with a fist in the head on 17 August 2015 in Omišalj so that the latter fell on the ground. The applicant lodged an objection against the penalty notice, which he subsequently withdrew so that the decision became final of 23 June 2018. 3. Meanwhile, M.P. brought private criminal prosecution against the applicant for inflicting bodily injury on him under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Following the quashing of the first-instance court’s judgment, which had dismissed the charges for ne bis in idem, in the resumed proceedings, the Rijeka Municipal Court found the applicant guilty of causing bodily injury to M.P. by hitting him with a fist in the head on 17 August 2015 in Omišalj so that the latter fell on the ground, his two front teeth were knocked out and he got scratches on his left shoulder and left hip. The court sentenced the applicant to a four months’ suspended prison sentence. This judgment was upheld on appeal on 21 August 2020. 4. On 7 April 2021 the Constitutional Court declared the applicant’s constitutional complaint inadmissible as being manifestly ill-founded. 5. The applicant complained that he had been convicted twice of the same offence, contrary to Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention.

Outcome for Article P7-4: violation