Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic held a joint press conference on Monday following a scandal involving printouts of telephone calls, saying that the police had not violated the law in the course of their duties. The press conference, held in the President's Office, was prompted by a newspaper article on the unauthorised provision of telephone records concerning senior intelligence officials and executives of the Agrokor food and retail group.
The President and the Prime Minister said they had decided together to relieve Petar Misevic as head of the Office of the National Security Council and to appoint Dragan Lozancic as new director of the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA). They added that they would announce soon who would succeed Misevic.
"We have considered the developments on which there have been different reports and different views, and based on the information available, we have concluded that there was no violation of the law in the application of certain measures which are provided for under the law and which are made available to relevant state bodies, notably to the Ministry of the Interior," Josipovic said.
The President called for a thorough investigation and for the publication of its findings in due course, adding that the investigation into the printouts of phone records would be conducted in accordance with the law.
"It is our permanent concern to see to it that measures available to state agencies are under constant and efficient control so as to prevent any threat to human rights or any irregularities," Josipovic said.
"In order to rectify the deficiencies in the functioning of the system. the Prime Minister and I have decided on some personnel changes which are necessary to develop the system in the spirit of the Constitution and laws, to implement all measures in the struggle against organised crime and also to ensure protection of human rights and law enforcement," he added.
"The fact that we have not made personnel changes in the last nine months (since we came into power) speaks of our confidence," Milanovic said.
Milanovic said that the matter should also be considered by the parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs and National Security.
The two officials pointed out a difference between the secret monitoring of telephone calls and the inspection of printouts of telephone records, with the latter being a milder form of intrusion of the state apparatus into people's privacy.
