In former Yugoslavia around 500 men went to jail for being homosexuals

Out of 500 of them, half were sentenced to suspended sentence, and the other half served a short time

- According to the criminal law of the former SFR Yugoslavia, in the period between 1951 and 1977, around 500 men were convicted of "unnatural adultery", which means homosexuality - said Frank Dota, future PhD of the Faculty of Philosophy in the city of Zagreb, Croatia, in an interview for Fena news agency.

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His work relates to the theme "Public political history of male homosexuality in former Yugoslavia".

He stated this on today's session "Between the tradition and sexual modernity: homosexuality in the socialist Yugoslavia", organized in the city of Sarajevo.

Dota stressed the fact that half of 500 people were sentenced to suspended jail time, while the other half served a short prison time.

- In Croatia and Serbia around 300 men were found guilty, while other countries combined had around 200 cases - he explained.

He added that in the same period of time, West Germany had around 100.000 cases like this, Great Britain around 70.000, Italy 30.000, and Austria around 12.000 cases.

Later on, according to the Constitution from 1974, Criminal law enforcement became part of republics and provinces respectively, but the result was the same.

- The difference was in noting male homosexuality. Slovenia erased the rem "unnatural adultery" while Croatia left it only when it came to rape cases, which means they made a difference between heterosexual and homosexual rape - said he.

Montenegro and Vojvodina province also did the de-criminalization process, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Macedonia did not.

During his research he found out that up to 1950 in police files of Yugoslavia 602 men were stated being homosexuals, and that in the period between 1947 and 1951 80 male and 10 female homosexuals were sentenced.

- Bosnia and Herzegovina had 88 cases, Montenegro 3, Slovenia and Macedonia 41, Croatia 201, and Serbia 190 cases. Sentences ranged from a simple reprimand up to force labor - said he.

The sentence could have been prolonged up to 2 years for this crime, and that the new Criminal law from 1997 reduced the punishment to up to 1 year.

Under the structure of the Criminal law, this was a mild offense so the fine could have been paid, whereas in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia the offender had to go to jail.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Source: Fena)