A lawsuit from the President of opposition party HDZ.
Tomislav Karamarko, president of the largest opposition party HDZ, has sued former prime minister Josip Manolić for his statement that Karamarko has once been an informer for the State Security Service. Karamarko’s attorney Veljko Miljević confirmed that about a fortnight ago he filed a lawsuit against the high government official during the HDZ rule in the early 1990s, reports Novi List on August 14, 2015.
“Mr. Karamarko wanted to stop speculations whether he will sue or not, and asked me to bring the lawsuit forward. Manolić is being sued for slander, insult and embarrassment”, said Miljević. At this stage, Karamarko has not requested financial compensation for the damages, but according to his lawyer that is still a possibility.
Manolić had this reaction to the news that his former chief of staff has fulfilled his promise and sued him. “I did not know about it, but I am glad he did. It’s up to the justice system now. I believe that the judge will be objective and fair. I am ready for the trial and I would like to get it started as soon as possible, so that the litigation can be over by the end of the year. It makes no sense to prolong it”, said Manolić.
In an interview with the Nacional magazine few months ago, Manolić criticized Karamarko’s intention to conduct lustration in Croatia if he wins the forthcoming parliamentary elections. He said that, if lustration were to be conducted, one of the first victims should be Karamarko himself, “because he was working for the State Security Service at the end of the 1980s. We know who his contact in the Service was and there are still people who can confirm this, including me”, said Manolić.
Karamarko remained silent for several days, and then finally said that the allegations are “monstrous fabrications in the function of the electoral campaign in order to divert public attention from the real problems”. He decided to sue Manolić and said that former operatives of the State Security Service will testify that Karamarko, as a then member of a Catholic choir, was in fact a victim of the communist secret police, and not its informant.
