"We have a system of three branches of power and I want to clearly say that we respect the three-branch system, and I will not comment, as prime minister, on everything that is happening in the judiciary, but as a citizen I am very concerned about the judiciary's conduct in the Glavas case," Sanader said, underlining that politics should be kept away from the judiciary.
"The fact is that the EU's insistence on judicial reform is now receiving its best confirmation."
Sanader said the government last night held a session by phone at which it decided, in accordance with the Hague war crimes tribunal's rules on procedure and statute, to appeal the UN court's decision not to grant Croatia amicus curiae status in the cases of Croatian Army Generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak and in the case against Jadranko Prlic and another five Bosnian Croat war-time leaders.
"We feel that Croatia, as a friend of the court, can give very important and true facts about what happened during the Homeland War, notably during (Operation) Storm," he said. He added that if the tribunal did not approve Croatia's latest request to be granted amicus curiae status, the government would give everything at its disposal to the defence.
The PM was speaking to the press in the eastern town of Vukovar, where he opened the international conference on agriculture in Croatia.