Dane jailed in Croatia over ‘Liberland’ border incident

Ulrik Grøssel Haagensen sentenced to 15 days in prison

Jul 2, 2015

A Danish man, Ulrik Grøssel Haagensen, has been arrested and jailed for trying to cross into a no man’s land between the border of Croatia and Serbia.

Haagensen was picked up by Croatian police on June 18 for trying to enter an area that no nation has officially claimed and which he and some other people want to be recognised as the independent nation ‘Liberland’.

According to the organisation Liberland Settlement Association (LSA), the Dane was arrested after landing on ‘Liberland’ in a boat. He tried to explain to the Croatian police that he was a citizen of Liberland and that the Croatian authorities had no business there, but was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 15 days in a prison in Osijek.

Unclaimed since 1943
Croatia and non-EU Serbia have an agreement that the two countries prevent people from going across one another’s borders.

The curious case of ‘Liberland’ hinges on neither Serbia nor Croatia claiming an area of land – the green area named Siga in the map below – near the Croatian/Serbia border at the Danube river.

On April 1, the Czech national Vít Jedlicka claimed the area as ‘Liberland’ because no-one has officially claimed the area since 1943. He and others from LSA have since been arrested several times by the Croatian police who claim that attempting to go there is a violation of Croatian borders.