The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) said on Wednesday it was continuing with inquiries into the publication of confidential depositions in the media, because information from confidential investigations continue to appear in the media despite an investigation launched to find the perpetrators.
USKOK did not state which official secret had been revealed, but the media recently published a confidential deposition by Branka Pavosevic, a former accountant of the ruling HDZ party, about an HDZ slush fund.
USKOK will interview all persons who claim to have received "from sources close to the investigation" copies of those depositions, in order to collect information and facts necessary for pressing charges for the leaking of information from investigations.
USKOK said publishing information about evidence collection undermined investigations and indirectly the presentation of evidence in court, recalling that, following the publication of whole or parts of depositions, it had requested the police to carry out an investigation in order to find the perpetrators.
Given that information about evidence collection continues to be published in the media, particularly following the publication of the entire deposition of one suspect, USKOK said that it was continuing with inquiries in order to establish which person with access to that information leaked it to persons or media, committing the crime of revealing an official secret.
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said today she did not believe that USKOK had leaked information that it was only a matter of days before her Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party was indicted. She warned that no information from any investigation should be made public and announced that the government would try to find out what was happening and who was possibly giving statements that should not be made public at this stage of the investigation.
