diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 7fbd5ff89e..4f051942bd 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -2570,7 +2570,7 @@ sub parse_commit_text {
 		} elsif ((!defined $withparents) && ($line =~ m/^parent ([0-9a-fA-F]{40})$/)) {
 			push @parents, $1;
 		} elsif ($line =~ m/^author (.*) ([0-9]+) (.*)$/) {
-			$co{'author'} = $1;
+			$co{'author'} = to_utf8($1);
 			$co{'author_epoch'} = $2;
 			$co{'author_tz'} = $3;
 			if ($co{'author'} =~ m/^([^<]+) <([^>]*)>/) {
@@ -2580,10 +2580,9 @@ sub parse_commit_text {
 				$co{'author_name'} = $co{'author'};
 			}
 		} elsif ($line =~ m/^committer (.*) ([0-9]+) (.*)$/) {
-			$co{'committer'} = $1;
+			$co{'committer'} = to_utf8($1);
 			$co{'committer_epoch'} = $2;
 			$co{'committer_tz'} = $3;
-			$co{'committer_name'} = $co{'committer'};
 			if ($co{'committer'} =~ m/^([^<]+) <([^>]*)>/) {
 				$co{'committer_name'}  = $1;
 				$co{'committer_email'} = $2;