Assistant Justice Minister to Resign After Just Six Days in Office

Mijo Crnoja gets competition.

The newly-appointed Assistant Minister of Justice for the prison system Slavko Kovačević has offered to resign, and Minister Ante Šprlje will accept his resignation, according to unofficial sources from the Ministry of Justice. The resignation will be accepted as soon as Kovačević returns from Brussels where he travelled yesterday. The Ministry claims it did not know about allegations against Kovačević, reports Jutarnji List on March 11, 2016.

Slavko Kovačević, the head of security in the Pula prison, was appointed as assistant justice minister at the government session held on 4 March. He was supposed to head the Croatian prison system. Shortly after his appointment, the media found out that Kovačević has been convicted in the past. The Pula Municipal Court confirmed there was a criminal process led against Kovačević. “According to available information, there were proceedings against Slavko Kovačević for a criminal offense of aggravated bodily harm. The proceedings were concluded on 12 June 2004”, reported the court. The court did not want to disclose information about whether Kovačević was convicted or not.

However, according to unofficial sources, then correctional officer Slavko Kovačević was sentenced in 2004 to a suspended prison sentence for physical assault on a minor person which resulted in serious bodily injury. The act was committed out of duty, and the victim was a boy from his neighbourhood whose behaviour Kovačević did not like. Kovačević hit the boy, which resulted in ruptured eardrums.

Sources close to the Pula prison claim that at the time there was another disciplinary procedure conducted against Kovačević due to “abuse of authority”, which probably means that as a correctional officer he used excessive force against prisoners.

Although a long time has passed since his conviction and he has since been legally rehabilitated, after he became a high-ranking state official, Kovačević should have known that rules do change. If a state official, particularly the head of the prison system, has been prone to violent behaviour, the public has a right to know about it. That right is more important than his personal right for legal rehabilitation.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!