ZAGREB, October 9, 2018 – After being interrogated at the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor over claims of leaking information from a police investigation into an elite prostitution ring in 2011, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy president and Parliament Deputy Speaker Milijan Brkić, said that it was sad to see that media outlets find him responsible for attempts to undermine that police investigation which resulted in arrests and in a court conviction.
“I can understand your need to have information, but you have to understand that I cannot in any way divulge the contents of the talks,” Brkić said after being interrogated today as a witness by prosecutors, following media reports that confidential police activities in the elite prostitution investigation were disclosed to some of the suspects in that case in 2011.
Furthermore, the current Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić has recently said the municipal prosecution office does not currently have the file from 2011 relating to the busting of that prostitution ring. Jelenić has also announced efforts to reconstruct the case file to establish whether the investigation was indeed halted at that point. As soon as the scandal broke out, Brkić has denied any wrongdoing on his part and insists that he has fallen victim to internal disputes in the party.
“I have spoken with the Chief State Prosecutor, I once again gave a deposition about the circumstances in 2011,” Brkić said today.
“I can only say that it is absurd and even sad that after being the deputy police director and after having coordinated the whole police operation which eventually resulted in arrests and court convictions, I am being called again now to give statements about those circumstances and that I am being suspected of compromising the police operation. If I had wanted to compromise the operation, then the operation would not have been conducted at all,” Brkić said today.
Asked by reporters if this was all about a political campaign directed against him, Brkić said that that was irrelevant and that “it may be that the campaign is directed against the HDZ.” It is interesting that this story is being recycled, he added.
He also said that he was in contact with Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenković “on a permanent, daily basis” but added that he could not divulge the contents of their conversations.
After a recent special meeting of the parliamentary Home Affairs and National Security Committee following allegations of the information leak and abuse of the legal system, Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić said the municipal prosecutor’s office did not currently dispose of the file from 2011 related to busting that prostitution ring, stressing however there were no cover-ups.
Jelenić told the press that witnesses had been questioned in that case. “These are the people who had previously notified the police of their informal information, but refused to repeat their claims during the investigation,” Jelenić said then explaining that those persons had denied their original claims to the police.
Asked if the name Milijan Brkić, who the Nacional weekly claims leaked the information to suspects under police surveillance in the 2011 elite prostitution case, was mentioned in the official police documents and reports and whether Brkić was called as a witness, Jelenić said he could not say if anyone’s name was mentioned in informal police documents.
While entering DORH offices on Tuesday morning, Brkić told the press that he would do what he is supposed to do as a citizen of this country and that he would give his deposition again just as he had done in 2011 regarding the prostitution ring investigation. He stopped short of saying anything more about the deposition he gave in 2011 when he was the deputy national police director.
