The Croatian Parliament's Committee on Home Affairs and National Security on Thursday adopted by a majority vote a report by its task force which had found no irregularities in actions by the Ministry of the Interior following a complaint by Social Democratic Party MP Slavko Linic.
The Committee's task force, set up to look into Linic's allegations about the abuse of office and powers by Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko, national chief of police Oliver Grbic and police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec, found that his allegations were unfounded.
Three opposition members of the Committee -- Igor Dragovan, Ranko Ostojic and Dino Kozlevac -- issued a separate opinion saying that even before any reasonable suspicion was established Linic had been publicly discredited by an anonymous report and an Interior Ministry statement accusing him of war profiteering in Rijeka in 1991.
Dragovan told reporters that Minister Karamarko had deliberately deceived the public by posting a statement on the Ministry's website on May 18 saying that in the case of the anonymous report against Linic the police had acted on the orders of the public prosecutor, and an investigation had found that the Rijeka Public Prosecutor had issued no such order.
Committee vice-chairman Tomislav Culjak of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that Linic's report was "an attempt at further politicisation and pressure on the police".
"That's not good, especially when it's done by political parties and people who should be advocating the independence of all institutions, including the efficiency of the Interior Ministry in combating all forms of crime," Culjak told a press conference.
Culjak said that the most important thing was that the police had acted in accordance with their powers and the law.
