"There was absolutely no pressure from the authorities not to publish the interview," Manjkas said, adding that after consultations with attorneys the newspaper decided not to publish the interview until the necessary conditions were met.
Addressing a news conference at which he distributed copies of Glavas's interview, Drmic, an aide of Glavas, said that Manjkas had told him that the daily could not reach investigating judge Zdenko Posavec, who is conducting the investigation into Glavas, to consult with him on whether the publishing of the interview would be in violation of relevant laws.
Vecernji List has already unlawfully published Glavas's medical record, and is now afraid of the unlawful publishing of an interview with him, he added.
Drmic went on to say that Manjkas had insisted on the interview and that Glavas, although exhausted by his hunger strike, last weekend agreed to answer the questions sent to him.
In the interview, copies of which were distributed to the press, Glavas says that he is not on a hunger strike because he wants to commit suicide, but because he is protesting against the wrong done to him by the HDZ-led government and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, because war veterans and the Homeland War are being criminalised, and because the proceedings against him are rigged.
Glavas also speaks in the interview about his participation in alleged fraud at the HDZ's intra-party elections.
Glavas, who is under investigation on suspicion of war crimes against civilians, was a senior HDZ official until the spring of 2005 when he, Drmic and some other close aides of Glavas were dismissed from the party.