ZAGREB, October 5, 2018 – After a special meeting of the parliamentary Home Affairs and National Security Committee held on Thursday following allegations of an information leak and abuse of the legal system, Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić said the municipal office of the Chief State Prosecution at this moment did not have the file from 2011 about busting a 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, 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.
He announced his office would try to reconstruct the case file to establish whether the investigation had stopped at that point.
Jelenić said he had no objections to the police work, adding that “once it is decided that it is in the best interest of the investigation, all those who need to give a deposition will most probably be called to give their deposition, including Milijan Brkić, if necessary.”
He disagreed with claims of frequent information leaks, recalling that over the past four years, nine police officials had been charged with that offence.
The head of the parliamentary committee, Ranko Ostojić of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said he would not accept the claim that there had been no cover-ups until he received in writing everything the committee decided today.
“The Committee on Home Affairs and National Security has taken note of the information presented by representatives of the relevant bodies. All those summoned have shown up – the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA), the Police Directorate, the National Security Council Office, the Chief State Prosecutor and the Telecommunication Monitoring Centre,” Ostojić told the press.
It is very important for the Committee that it has received a very precise answer that the matter from 2011, according the then Criminal Procedure Act, ended with a decision of an investigating judge who, having heard the suspects, decided there was nothing else that would require new measures, Ostojić said.
The Chief State Prosecutor has announced his office will reconstruct the case file and see if anything was done unlawfully.
Milijan Brkić, who is also a member of the Committee, excused himself and did not attend the session, while SOA chief Danijel Markić declined to answer reporters’ questions after the session.
