Criminal law elements of protection of protected persons in the Republic of Croatia

The author has studied the purpose and development of criminal law protection of the highest state officials from the establishment of Croatian independence in the 1990s to the enactment of the Criminal Code in 2011. Pursuant to the Regulation on the designation of protected persons, facilities and premises and the implementation of their protection and security, the highest state officials and internationally protected persons become protected persons who enjoy special police protection. Specific provisions of the Criminal Code provide them with special criminal law protection. The incriminations of criminal offences committed to the detriment of domestic and foreign protected persons were the subject of a more detailed analysis. Namely, it is a particularly sensitive object of criminal law protection which, through protecting the life and person of the holder of state duties, represents the protection of the constitutional order and the security of the Republic of Croatia. Criminal offences committed to the detriment of the highest state officials are rare and are poorly addressed in criminal law dogma. The lack of criminal law and theoretical elaborations of these incriminations was a significant impetus to the research. Current international and European legal instruments define an attack on the highest state officials as terrorism, and Croatian criminal law dogma and practice have entirely accepted and followed this interpretation.