Split police seek nine Torcida fans, including Lekic
Police have published photos of nine suspects wanted for inciting hatred at the Torcida march. Among them is former secretary Stipe Lekic, and the total is now 20.
Split police on Sunday published photos of nine men they are seeking for publicly inciting violence and hatred at the Torcida march before the match between Hajduk and Ajax. Among them is Stipe Lekic, the group’s former secretary, who in November 2025 led a protest in Split demanding the release of men arrested after Torcida stormed the Days of Serbian Culture. The case concerns Serbia as well, because it has drawn a reaction from within Croatia itself: the founders of the HDZ are asking security services to examine whether the incidents were staged to feed a narrative about a “Serbian world.”
What the police say
The march took place on October 15, ahead of the match at Poljud. The Split-Dalmatia Police Administration gives the time of the offense as between 4 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. in Split. Citizens who know where the people in the photos are can call 192 or write to splitsko-dalmatinska@policija.hr. The police statement accompanying the photos says:
The people in the photographs are reasonably suspected of being connected to the commission of the stated criminal offense.
Criminal complaints against the first 14 people were filed on Friday. Police have since identified six more suspects, bringing the total to 20, and one of those six has already been arrested. Of the first 14, five are in custody or otherwise available, while nine are being sought. A day earlier four were available, which means one more has been arrested.
Reports on detention differ. Index.hr says the investigating judge of the Split County Court ordered pretrial detention for 13 people from the first group: one suspect is already serving a sentence and was at the march on an approved leave, so he was returned to prison and no detention was ordered for him. Klix.ba writes that detention was ordered for all 14.
Who is Stipe Lekic
Lekic was in the Torcida leadership from October 2006 to August 2012. Video of the march shows him throwing a suitcase marked “Ajax” from a car and jumping on it. The chants heard along the route were “Auschwitz, Auschwitz,” “Get up, Adolf” and “Trample the Jews.”
The public knows his name from before. At a celebration in Knin on August 5, 2026, he led the Ustasha salute “Za dom spremni” (“For the Homeland, Ready”). Back in 2007 he wore a T-shirt reading “Hajduk Jugend,” an allusion to the Hitler Youth. He said then that he liked the slogan and the symbol, but rejected any link to Nazism, adding: “Torcida always leans to the right.” Historian Tvrtko Jakovina accused him over those shirts of promoting Nazism, and after those appearances he received a threatening email signed “Hajduk Jugend.” All of this belongs to the 2007 case and is unrelated to the current march.
What earlier complaints show
Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said that 11 of the first 14 suspects had previously been reported for a combined 94 criminal offenses and 273 misdemeanors. One person has 30 criminal and 11 misdemeanor complaints. According to Klix, only five of those cases ended in a verdict: three suspended sentences, one fine and one prison term of 11 months.
Index.hr, citing 24sata, also reports the reasoning of the investigating judge: similar chants had been heard at earlier matches of the same club but mostly went unprosecuted, and this was gradually accepted as part of the fan atmosphere. The judge said he was not describing an accidental or isolated incident.
Publicly inciting violence and hatred carries up to three years in prison, and for organizers or group leaders six months to five years.
The reaction from the HDZ
The “Dr. Franjo Tudjman” Community of HDZ Founders said that those who caused the incident are no better than those who have spent years building the image of a “fascist Croatia,” and called on security services to determine whether the incidents were accidental or staged. Its statement asks:
Who are those who abuse the euphoria and enthusiasm of fans and are trying to compromise their city, their club and Croatia in the worst possible way
Police are continuing to review footage of the march and gather evidence, and new criminal complaints are possible.
