ZAGREB, October 4, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) was an independent institution and that the Chief State Prosecutor and relevant agencies would present their version of the events surrounding the latest case involving deputy parliament speaker and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy leader Milijan Brkić when they deemed it to be necessary.
The latest issue of the Nacional weekly published police documents, which, it says, undoubtedly show that Brkić, who was the deputy police director at the time, committed a grave offence in 2011 by informing criminal groups involved in elite prostitution that they were under surveillance, thus undermining the police investigation.
The weekly claims that no probe was launched against Brkić even though law enforcement authorities possessed information that he had alerted organisers of the elite prostitution ring.
The weekly released the article in the wake of the “texts scandal” in which Brkić’s close friend Blaž Curić was arrested on suspicion that he had informed a former police IT expert Franjo Varga that he was about to be arrested for creating fake text messages for former football mogul Zdravko Mamić.
After a meeting of the parliamentary majority, reporters asked the prime minister whether he thought it was odd that DORH had not yet provided any information about the situation concerning Brkić, particularly since the Interior Ministry reported earlier today that it had sent details regarding the events in 2011 to DORH on several occasions.
The prime minister said that the situation should be fully investigated and that once the relevant bodies obtained information, they should also make it available, if possible, to the public.
Noting that DORH was independent from the government, the prime minister said that he was confident that the chief state prosecutor and relevant agencies would present their version of the events and their stance when they considered it to be necessary. He added that he had no influence and did not intend to call the chief state prosecutor with regard to that or any other topic as it would bad for the functioning of state institutions.
Plenković repeated that it was important to get used to the fact that everyone has their own role and that it is up to DORH to state what it thinks about the case.
With regard to the scandal involving Brkić, the prime minister said that it was necessary to see what was true and what wasn’t. Asked whether he had spoken with Brkić and what their relationship was like, Plenković said that it was the same as yesterday. “We saw each other some 20 hours ago. I have no need, nor should we be constantly talking about the same thing. We’ve said everything we had to. This is not about whether I’m convinced that something is the case. What is important is that we see what is true and what isn’t,” he said.
Asked to comment on a protest rally against inefficiency in the prosecution of war crimes, to be held in Vukovar on October 13, and the fact that according to some estimates, about 10,000 people were expected to attend and that more and more veterans’ associations were announcing their attendance, Plenković said that he did not have information of that nature.
“My stance has been very clear from the start – war crimes should absolutely be prosecuted. That was even the topic of a meeting of the parliamentary majority and we all agreed on that,” the prime minister said.
He added, however, that turning the Vukovar appeal – which is how the mayor and some veterans’ associations call it – into a political protest was not good.
