Explaining reasons for the postponement of voting on the Commission's decisions to strip Glavas of immunity so that he could be detained in custody on suspicion of war crimes, Luka Bebic said at the resumption of Friday's parliamentary session that the HDZ club needs some time for the consultations on the Commission's decisions.
Bebic also refuted media speculations that the Glavas case caused a rift in the ruling party.
This is in the best manner denied by the fact that the HDZ Club unanimously decided on the postponement of the voting, the HDZ senior official said.
Vladimir Sisljagic of the HDSSB party and Anto Djapic, the chief of the Party of Rights (HSP), said at the parliamentary session that there was no reason for delaying the voting. The two also took exception to what they called pressure being exerted by the media and the judiciary on the national parliament and to criticism that the Sabor is interfering in the remit of judiciary.
Sisljagic and Djapic said that during Wednesday's debate on the Commission's reports, the parliament did not interfere in court proceedings against Glavas and that the parliament only dealt with the procedure of stripping a member of parliament of immunity, which was within the constitutional powers of the Sabor.
"The pressure is being exerted on the Sabor rather than on the judiciary," Djapic said describing the delay as the twilight of democracy.
Sisljagic joined in the criticism of the media, claiming that the press had already found Glavas guilty of crimes.
Sisljagic also holds that it is Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic who pressurise the parliament into making decisions that suit him.
He also accused the ruling HDZ of being susceptible to pressure from the media and the judiciary as well as from the international community.
The HDSSB deputy interpreted the fact that the head of the European Commission's Delegation to Croatia, Vincent Degert, told the Croatian Television prime time news programme that the Commission was following the developments surrounding Glavas as "his implication that the Sabor cannot independently make decisions and that the Sabor is not wise enough to know what to do".
Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) suggested that the HDZ should not try to transform the judiciary in its proxy and that it should not try to push Croatia back into 1990s.
Kajin said he believed that the Hague-based ICTY tribunal had transferred the Glavas case to Croatia to test its judiciary.
Replying to Kajin, Sisljagic said that the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal would have already issued an indictment against Glavas, if it had had only one element for suspecting that Glavas may have committed war crimes in Osijek.