The head of the HVIDRA Zagreb branch, Ivan Pandza, said at a press conference on Tuesday that he did not know who had sent the police to the HVIDRA offices and that neither the minister of the interior nor the chief of police could answer that question.
After obtaining a court order, the police carried out the raid to prevent journalist Domagoj Margetic from showing a video recording of protected testimony given by President Stjepan Mesic before the Hague war crimes tribunal, which Margetic had announced. Margetic and Pandza were arrested and released around midnight.
HVIDRA insists that it was not possible to show the recording for lack of technical equipment.
Pandza, who is classed as 80% disabled, said he refused to let the police into the premises because they did not have a search warrant, adding that police officers threw him to the floor, put his hands on the back and hit him. He showed a medical certificate saying that he suffered injuries to the forehead and the chest.
Pandza said that the police raid was in violation of the Constitution and the law. "Things like that should not be allowed to happen again. HVIDRA will have to reorganise itself," he warned without elaborating.