Former deputy prime minister Damir Polancec said at a press conference on Friday that in September 2009 national chief of police Oliver Grbic warned that a series of anonymous criminal allegations had been filed against members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and that the party's leadership should respond by pressing charges against opposition leaders.
Polancec said he had been referred to the chief of police by Ivo Sanader two weeks after he had resigned as prime minister. Polancec said he was in Sanader's office when Grbic called Sanader on the phone to inform him about the proceedings against former defence minister Berislav Roncevic.
Sanader, however, handed his mobile to Polancec, who met with Grbic a few weeks later in his office at the Economy Ministry. That meeting was also attended by transport minister Bozidar Kalmeta, who did not say anything, while Grbic spoke of the Roncevic case and said that the police had received a number of anonymous reports against senior HDZ and government officials, Polancec said.
Grbic then recommended to the HDZ leadership to file anonymous charges against opposition leaders, including Social Democratic Party (SDP) official Slavko Linic and Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader Radimir Cacic, who he said were already perceived in the public as implicated in corruption scandals.
Polancec said that when he had informed the HDZ presidency about this, he got the impression that none of them were surprised or dismayed at Grbic's proposal.
Polancec said that after that Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor called another meeting at which Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko reported on the course of proceedings against Roncevic.
When asked by a reporter what position the government had taken on the announcement that criminal charges were being pressed against Roncevic, Polancec said they had tried "to use their influence to prevent it from happening."
Polancec said that police operatives had also briefed senior HDZ officials Vladimir Seks and Andrija Hebrang on the criminal prosecution of Roncevic. He said that Ivan Jarnjak was most probably also present at that meeting, but added that he was not sure about it.
Polancec's lawyer, Anto Nobilo, in whose office the press conference was held, said that all this indicated that the HDZ leadership controlled the police and that minister Karamarko was announcing criminal prosecutions at political meetings.
"I'm sorry I didn't go public with all this earlier," Polancec said and added that he had had to wait until "the time was ripe." "With this I want to prevent such things from happening in the future, because they are damaging to Croatia."
