Istria County police said on Thursday that Croatian border police officers at the Croatian-Slovenian border crossing Plovanija did not behave inappropriately towards four young Slovaks around noon on Monday but that it was a misunderstanding.
During deposition at the Porec police station on Thursday, with Slovak police officers present as interpreters, the four foreigners stressed several times that the Croatian policemen treated them fairly during the border crossing, county police spokesman Valter Opasic said at a press conference called following allegations that the Slovak tourists were sexually harassed.
According to Danijel Mendas of the Rijeka police, the Slovaks misunderstood the words "kod cura", which means "on the girls" in Croatian, as "kocura", which is a Slovak slang word for penis.
Describing the incident, he said that one of the Slovak guys seemed nervous, leading the border police officers to suspect that he might be in possession of or using drugs. They strip-searched the two guys, but found nothing suspicious. During the strip-search, the two 20-year-old girls were outside the border police station and were not searched.
One officer asked the guys in English if the girls had or used drugs, but since they did not understand English, he tried to explain in Croatian, pointing to the groin, where girls sometimes hide drugs, that the police wanted to know if they would find drugs on the girls if they strip-searched them.
Later, talking about what happened as they were driving to Porec, where the Slovaks are vacationing, one of the guys concluded that the police officer had requested sex. Speaking to their parents, the two girls repeated this incorrect version of the conversation with the police.
During the day, the Porec police officers, in cooperation with their Slovak colleagues, spoke to all Slovak citizens who stressed that "the border police officer acted fairly and that there was no verbal or physical conflict."
