According to Petrov, police protection wasn’t something he personally desired…
As RTL writes on the 18th of December, 2017, MOST’s Božo Petrov claims that he didn’t personally seek out police protection, but that SOA (Security and Intelligence Agency/Sigurnosno-obavještajna agencija) recommended he accept it owing to potential threats to his safety and security.
One of well known faces of MOST, Božo Petrov, otherwise a qualified psychiatrist, resigned as Speaker of Parliament at the beginning of May this year after the breaking of the Agrokor crisis resulted in a messy and very public divorce between MOST and HDZ, the former ruling coalition.
According to the law, Petrov’s former position automatically meant that he was classed as a Category I protected person and was therefore entitled to the use of police protection for six months after leaving office. But as 24sata writes, Petrov confirmed that he’s still very much under the watchful eye of the law every single day and is always accompanied by two special police officers, despite having left office more than half a year ago.
“I’m not in a position to talk about it, you’ll have to ask SOA,” Božo Petrov briefly said after being faced with questions as to why he’s still under such close police protection.
As previously stated, it would seem that Petrov didn’t personally ask for continued protection, but that it was recommended to him. One policeman drives a black Audi A6, while the other closely follows.
“If they do a security assessment and conclude that no protection is needed, I’ll give it up,” Petrov stated.
“Given that all the information on providing such measures is classed as classified, we aren’t able to answer your specific questions,” read a statement from MUP.
According to 24sata, Petrov is far from the first to enjoy close police protection for a longer time than most would deem to be necessary, Vladimir Šeks was protected by the police for five years because of the threats he’d received. Former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and the controversial former HDZ chief Tomislav Karamarko stopped using the service almost two entire years after leaving office.
