Bob Dylan is being investigated in France after a Croatian community organisation alleged that comments he made to Rolling Stone magazine last year amounted to incitement to racial hatred, Paris prosecutors said today.

In the interview, which was published in the magazine’s September 27, 2012 edition, the singer said racism was holding America back.

‘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’ said Dylan.

The formal investigation followed a legal complaint from the organisation, CRICCF, which is based in France, alleging that the comments as carried in the French version of the magazine violated French racial hatred laws.

CRICCF secretary general Vlatko Maric confirmed that Parisian courts have agreed to hear the case and have requested Dylan’s presence during the hearing, the International Business Times reports.

In France, racism complaints automatically trigger formal investigations, irrespective of the merits of the case. Dylan was awarded France’s prestigious Legion d’Honneur award last month in Paris.

Dylan’s remarks have already had a knock-on effect in Croatia, with several radio stations removing his music from their playlists.