A member of the parliamentary Council for Civilian Supervision of Security Services Zoran Grgic said on Tuesday that the decision by Croatia's top state officials to dismiss the head of the Office of the National Security Council, Petar Misevic, was not clear.
Addressing journalists in the Parliament building, Grgic pointed out that he was speaking in his capacity as an expert court witness and not as a member of the Council. He said that statements on Monday by President Ivo Josipovic and Premier Zoran Milanovic indicated that Misevic's report differed significantly to previous ones, which leads to the conclusion that Misevic had found something illegal and notified the authorities.
"That is how I understood the president and premier's statements and I do not consider this to be grounds for dismissal but in fact just the opposite. I trust that a combined independent commission will investigate the matter in detail", Grgic said.
Asked whether it was sufficient for the Committee on Home Affairs and National Security to investigate the matter or if he supported the proposal put forward by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) that a special enquiry commission should be established to investigate the inspection of printouts of phone records.
"Considering the gravity of this affair and the media attention in has received, I think that for the sake of peace in the Croatian public it would be better if it was done by a combined inquiry commission", said Grgic.
He pointed out that in its ten years of existence if the Council came across any suspicious activities connected to politics, the matter was immediately reported to the National Security Office and entered into a final report.
It should be in the government's interest to set up enquiry commissions purely for the sake of national security and it seems ridiculous that they are discussing what sort of commission should be set up, Grgic added.
He commented on the imbalance in legislation given that if security services wish to apply measures of covert gathering of information they need to request permission from the Supreme Court whereas special investigations can be conducted based on a proposal by the police yet the prosecutor needs to obtain permission from the investigating judge.
"The greatest absurdity in all this is that communications by foreign intelligence services toward the head of Croatia's intelligence may have been compromised. I do not wish to speculate but the police and prosecution should be doing their job but I'm afraid that Croatia's reputation may have been undermined in intelligence circles, toward our partners in NATO and the world, Grgic concluded.
