Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Tomislav Karamarko in Brussels on Thursday said that during his time in office as interior minister the police had received orders from the state prosecution to investigate information leaks about then current cases and that allowable methods were used for this.
Karamarko is participating at a meeting of the European People's Party (EPP) in Brussels and commented on headlines in the Croatian press that former police chief Oliver Grbic had last year allegedly ordered the secret surveillance of chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic along with eight journalists.
"I can and should comment. I was the interior minister then. These were police activities that were initiated by the state prosecution as information was being leaked about investigations concerning the Fimi-media case", he said.
He added that the "police used legally founded methods and instruments to disclose where information leaks were occurring, the operation was not an attack on journalists and this should never be the case but weak points in the system should be", adding that there was no question of any reporters that were to be arrested.
It is odd that news of this kind appears just one day after details were released that unemployment has exceeded 350,000. I'm sure affairs like this are created to turn the people's attention away from the real problems in the country, said Karamarko.
Karamarko said that during the meeting of the EPP he would hold talks with Slovenian PM Janez Jansa about the ratification of Croatia's accession treaty.
"I would not like to see us come into a tight squeeze before 1 July next year. I might talk with Premier Jansa and tell him that bilateral issues such as the Ljubljanska Banka should not have any impact on the ratification process", he said, adding that he hoped Croatia's "diplomacy had done its job".
