Frajle Cleared of Defaming Former Manager in Zagreb

Zagreb’s Municipal Criminal Court issued a first instance acquittal today for three members of the band Frajle, closing one chapter of their long running legal dispute with a former manager.

Nevena Buca, Jelena Buca and Natasa Mihajlovic were cleared of defamation in a private lawsuit brought by Lidija Samardzija and her company Cepelin Media, which represents Frajle as well as Dziboni, Urban, Amira Medunjanin, Martin Kosovac and former band member Marija Mirkovic. Judge Martina Pamic delivered the verdict.

What the court found

The dispute centered on an email sent from the band’s address, a few months before October 11, 2021, to several music organizations, associations, authors and other people in the industry. Samardzija filed her private lawsuit that same day.

The email made claims about how the manager had handled Frajle’s music rights, as well as about her dealings with authors and concert organizers. Samardzija and Cepelin Media argued the claims were false and could have damaged their honor and business reputation.

The court, however, did not rule on whether the claims in the email were true. It concluded that the facts laid out in the lawsuit did not meet all the elements required for a criminal defamation charge, since there was no proof that the defendants knew the claims were false or intended to harm the plaintiffs. The court also considered whether the case amounted to insult, but found no sufficient grounds for that either, and acquitted all three band members.

Nevena Buca told the court that she had not personally sent the email in question, that it had been sent by the band’s manager at the time, Jovanka Milivojevic, but that she stood behind its content and considered it true. Jelena Buca and Natasa Mihajlovic offered the same defense.

Samardzija and Cepelin Media must each pay 1,000 euros in flat criminal proceeding costs, 2,000 euros in total, as well as the fees and expenses of the defendants’ lawyers, whose final amount will be set in a separate ruling once the verdict becomes final. The verdict can be appealed to the County Court in Zagreb within 15 days of receiving it.

Part of a bigger legal battle

The defamation case is only one part of Frajle’s long running legal conflict with Samardzija. During the proceedings, Nevena Buca also said the band’s working relationship with their former manager began falling apart after they parted ways in 2021, when disputes over the album and rights followed, and that the relationship turned into an open business and legal conflict. She said part of the disputes over copyright and recordings has since been settled through a court agreement, which she described as a deal both sides were satisfied with.

Frajle previously had a separate dispute with the record label Croatia Records over rights and ownership of their material. That conflict was resolved in March 2025, when the band and the label became strategic partners, while the legal battle with Samardzija continued. Frajle’s PR team has said in the past that the band is pursuing the lawsuits to reclaim rights it says were taken from it.