Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic who was attending an annual meeting of police chiefs in Valbandon just outside of the northern Adriatic town of Pula on Thursday told reporters that he had requested an internal control in the ministry regarding last year's alleged secret surveillance of Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic and eight journalists.
"Internal control is checking its legality. If someone acted unlawfully, that is not in order. We need to ascertain if police authority had been overstepped in exploiting legal authority", Ostojic said, adding that the matter had to be investigated.
That is why I have ordered an internal control so that we can clear the matter, he said.
Asked by journalists if the police could in fact spy on the state prosecutor, Ostojic said that everyone could be the target of such measures.
"This case however, requires special attention because it seems unacceptable that a request by the state prosecutor can be used against him in the end", Minister Ostojic said.
He explained that this was not a case of phone-tapping but surveillance and applying police authority relating to the Police Act by which the chief-of-police himself can order such surveillance.
