The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed Tuesday that charges of “public insult and inciting hate” have been filed against Bob Dylan over a 2012 Rolling Stone interview in which the singer made remarks that offended Croatians.
The charges, initially filed in mid-November, stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a Croatian community group in France that is demanding not monetary damages, but rather an apology from Dylan to the Croatian people. The Associated Press could not reach Dylan’s representatives for comment.
In the interview in Rolling Stone last year, the singer-songwriter referenced the hostile history between Croatians and Serbs when he was asked to compare antebellu- era America with the present.
“If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood,” Dylan said.
[AP]