"The Government in which Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt takes part as a coalition partner, labels such reports as a cheap attempt to achieve political destabilisation and as a premeditated platform ahead of the local elections," the Ivo Sanader cabinet said in a press release.
The government said that quite contrary to allegations and groundless conclusions published in the daily's article, "the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry regularly do their everyday jobs".
The Vecernji List daily connects the planned departure of Mlinaric from the ministerial post with the distribution of a British non-paper in which Croatian policemen were advised how to find the whereabouts of the fugitive general Ante Gotovina.
The daily claims that the minister was responsible for copying the paper in question about 20 times and distributing those copies to low-ranking ministry officials which is how reporters, lawyers, judges and opposition politicians obtained them.
With regard to Justice Minister Skare Ozbolt, the daily reports that the situation is more delicate, as she is the chief of the Democratic Centre (DC) party, a coalition partner of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The daily claims that secret services have been suspecting her for some time of being the main source for the media about the topic pertaining to the Hague tribunal. The government has decided to retain her at the ministerial post until the local elections, scheduled for 15 May, are held, the Vecernji List reported on Tuesday.