ZAGREB, February 28, 2020 – Parliament on Friday relieved chief state prosecutor Dražen Jelenić of duty by a majority vote, but the 2017 and 2018 reports on the work of the State Prosecutor’s Office (DORH) were still given the green light, also by a majority vote.
Jelenić’s dismissal was supported by 103 MPs, 2 voted against his dismissal and 1 MP abstained.
Jelenić was appointed less than two years ago and was relieved of duty after it was discovered that he failed to say that he was a member of a Masonic lodge, because of which he resigned last week.
After Jelenić was dismissed, parliament voted on DORH’s report for 2017, when Dinko Cvitan was at its helm. The report was adopted with 92 MPs voting in favour, 14 against and 1 abstention.
Ahead of the vote on the 2018 DORH report, submitted by Jelenić, Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Peđa Grbin called for a recess, claiming that DORH should be an independent institution combating crime and not be exposed to pressure by the government. However, this does not appear to be so anymore, he added.
In support of his argument, Grbin noted that the ruling majority rejected SDP’s motion that the chief state prosecutor should be vetted and that the law should say which associations the chief state prosecutor cannot be a member of.
After the recess, a vote was taken on Jelenić’s report on DORH for 2018, it was adopted with 67 votes in favour, 22 against and 6 abstentions.
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