General Police Director Oliver Grbic said on Monday that the police did not have information that would indicate that opposition parties were behind violent protests that occurred in the streets leading to Zagreb's St. Mark's Square on Saturday.
"The police did not arrive at such a conclusion after processing 65 arrested rioters, and I cannot confirm it," Grbic told reporters at the General Police Directorate when asked if the police had information that some opposition parties had taken part in organising and financing Saturday's riots in Zagreb, as claimed by government spokesman Mladen Pavic.
Grbic dismissed claims that the police used excessive force in the riots, saying that their conduct was very professional.
He stressed that the rioters in Radiceva Street started throwing stones at the police who were deployed there to block access to St. Mark's Square, where the government and parliament headquarters are located and where public assemblies are not allowed, and that the force they used against the rioters was appropriate.
The police arrested 65 persons, pressing criminal charges against 39 of them and misdemeanor charges against 16. The arrested persons included five minors, Grbic said.
Thirty-four persons against whom criminal charges have been pressed have been taken to an investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court and they are being questioned on suspicion of involvement in the riots and clashes with the police.
"Nobody in Croatia has any doubts that expressing disagreement with certain situations in society and certain topics in a peaceful way is everyone's right. However, what happened last week, particularly on Saturday, was anything but a democratic way of expressing one's opinion," said Grbic.
