The decision of judge Branko Milanovic to allow Budisa to discontinue serving his sentence for a period of 32 days has elicited various comments in the media.
Budisa has been serving a prison term of four years and 11 months in the central town of Gospic since last October. He received this sentence as the Split County Court found him guilty of the 1996 murder of Milenko Djekic.
Asked whether Justice Minister Ana Lovrin would initiate disciplinary proceedings against Judge Milanovic, who has already come in the limelight several times over his decisions which the media described as controversial, Dovranic said this would be discussed after it was assessed whether Milanovic's latest decision was in compliance with the law.
She added that it was also within the remit of the county court or the Supreme Court to decide on disciplinary proceedings before the ministry, as the third institution in the hierarchy, could make a decision to this effect.
In 1997, Milanovic acquitted a rapist who was convicted at a retrial.
In 2006, Milanovic acquitted a local businessman whom a U.S. basketball player had accused of rape in his hotel. Again his decision was quashed by a higher-instance court and the proceedings in this case are again under way.
Milanovic also grabbed the media attention with his explanation of a verdict against local Serb rebel whom he sentenced to 13 years in jail for war crimes. In his explanation the judge wrote that "the accused, together with his ancestors and the Ottoman forces, has been committing genocide against Croats for 500 years".