diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
@@ -232,9 +232,6 @@ def safe_str(unicode_, to_encoding=None)
     :returns: str object
     """
 
-    if not isinstance(unicode_, basestring):
-        return str(unicode_)
-
     if isinstance(unicode_, str):
         return unicode_