Police Director Oliver Grbic on Wednesday refuted accusations that the police had filed criminal complaints on political orders, including those against three Social Democratic Party (SDP) mayors - Rijeka's Vojko Obersnel, Koprivnica's Zvonimir Mrsic, and former Velika Gorica mayor Tonino Picula.
The three SDP Presidency members were suspected of financial wrongdoing in three cases, but the State Prosecutor's Office dismissed all three police complaints.
Grbic said in a statement that "a completely wrong conclusion is being drawn, that the complaints were groundless and tendentious... the result of political pressure."
He said the investigations in all three cases had been prompted by county prosecutors, with whom the police had met five times each in the "Pirovac Recreation Centre" and "TV Velika Gorica" cases and as many as 14 in the "Rijeka Market" case.
Grbic said that in the "Pirovac Recreation Centre" and "TV Velika Gorica" cases, the "position on the qualifications and wording of the criminal complaints and the persons that would be reported was agreed" with State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic before the complaints were filed.
As for the "Rijeka Market" case, Grbic said the position on the grounds, qualifications and wording of the criminal complaint had been agreed with then Rijeka county prosecutor Doris Hrast before the complaint was filed.
In his statement, Grbic said this showed it was incorrect, inappropriate and unfounded to constantly point out in the media that the police were acting unilaterally, tendentiously and politically, as this created the impression of an utter lack of professionalism and legal insecurity that could also affect foreign observers' perception of the social climate and rule of law in Croatia.
Grbic said that after the criminal complaints in the "Pirovac Recreation Centre" and "TV Velika Gorica" cases were dismissed, he warned Bajic that the complaints had been the result of intensive coordination between his office and the police, but did not bring into question the decisions of the county prosecutors.
Grbic said the complexity of the "Rijeka Market" case was evidenced by the fact that the Osijek County Prosecutor's Office dismissed the criminal complaint after 20 months.
In conclusion, he resolutely dismissed any suspicion that the police had been biased or politically influenced in investigating those three or any other case.
The SDP has accused the police several times of writing criminal complaints against its officials on political orders.
