diff --git a/app/views/refs/_tree.html.haml b/app/views/refs/_tree.html.haml
index ee2f2786..137501ea 100644
--- a/app/views/refs/_tree.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/refs/_tree.html.haml
@@ -42,9 +42,9 @@
         .readme
           - if content.name =~ /\.(md|markdown)$/i
             = preserve do
-              = markdown(content.data)
+              = markdown(content.data.force_encoding('UTF-8'))
           - else
-            = simple_format(content.data)
+            = simple_format(content.data.force_encoding('UTF-8'))
 
 - if params[:path]
   - history_path = tree_file_project_ref_path(@project, @ref, params[:path])
diff --git a/app/views/refs/_tree_file.html.haml b/app/views/refs/_tree_file.html.haml
index 768ff5a0..3fcc3733 100644
--- a/app/views/refs/_tree_file.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/refs/_tree_file.html.haml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
       #tree-readme-holder
         .readme
           = preserve do
-            = markdown(file.data)
+            = markdown(file.data.force_encoding('UTF-8'))
     - else
       .view_file_content
         - unless file.empty?
@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@
       %img{ :src => "data:#{file.mime_type};base64,#{Base64.encode64(file.data)}"}
   - else
     %center
-      = link_to blob_project_ref_path(@project, @ref, :path => params[:path]) do 
+      = link_to blob_project_ref_path(@project, @ref, :path => params[:path]) do
         %div
           %br
           = image_tag "download.png", :width => 64
-          %h3 
+          %h3
             Download (#{file.mb_size})