Croatia respects the law and the rule of law, Sanader told the press in Karlovac.
The state secretary at the Interior Ministry, Ivica Buconic, told the press the perpetrator would be punished in line with the law because it was a case of forgery of an official document.
Buconic said the police were checking all the facts. He declined to comment on media allegations that Gotovina's helpers in this case were on the run, saying that the investigation was not over yet.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun told Hina that "based on a number of leads, the police and the security services, in cooperation with the State Prosecutor's Office, are checking allegations that Gotovina fled with a fake passport issued by the Zagreb police".
Mehun said the State Prosecutor's Office would be informed of the results after all checks had been made, and declined to speak further about the case.