ZAGREB, Sept 25, 2020 – President Zoran Milanovic on Friday repeated his claim that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had known details about the JANAF case investigation, and he also thinks that information on the case is leaking from the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH).
Milanovic said that the prime minister had to know everything that was important and a burden on the system because otherwise, there was no one running anything, but only anonymous people hiding behind DORH’s name.
“Who is DORH, who was in charge of that case? That person has a name and surname,” Milanovic told reporters in Pazin, where Istria County Day is being marked.
“One person has the biggest responsibility, and that is the prime minister and he must know. And I believe that he will handle that information responsibly,” he said.
He also said that Ranko Ostojic, who was interior minister at the time when Milanovic was prime minister, was not correct when he said that he had not been informing Milanovic about investigations.
“He was informing me, and he was not the only one, on all important things,” he said.
Milanovic believes that DORH’s autonomy means that “there is no influence on their procedures.”
Suspicion that information is leaking from DORH
As for information leaking from the investigation, Milanovic said that there were only two possible sources — police and DORH, and he suspected that DORH was leaking information to the press.
He reiterated that it was not clear to him why JANAF oil pipeline operator CEO Dragan Kovacevic had not been arrested when he had accepted a bribe and the investigation continued for 10 more months, so there was only circumstantial evidence left now.
Milanovic dismissed claims by ministers in the Plenkovic government that at the time when Milanovic was prime minister, he abolished security checks, saying that that was not true.
“I did not. That’s a lie. I refused to let SOA (Security and Intelligence Agency) check my ministers, candidates for ministers, when I had to form a government. (…) I take responsibility for the government,” he said.
Asked about his visits to Kovacevic’s private club, Milanovic said that he thought he had not been there during the coronavirus crisis lockdown.
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