Cvrtila was speaking in a Croatian Television broadcast on Thursday evening after Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that he would not co-sign a decision to relieve of duty Counter-intelligence Agency director Josko Podbevsek as proposed by President Stjepan Mesic.
Mesic yesterday co-signed a decision to relieve of duty the head of the Counter-intelligence Agency (POA) due to dissatisfaction with the POA's behaviour with regard to the collection of information from reporter Helena Puljiz, and forwarded it to Sanader to co-sign it. However, Sanader said that he would not co-sign the decision.
Sanader added that the reaction of the President's Office was the result of the fact that the POA had presented reports to the Zagreb police department which served as a basis for charges pressed by the police against a former secretary of the President's Office, Zeljko Bagic, and former POA director Franjo Turek (who is a former secretary of Mesic's office, too) . That is why the proposal will not be co-signed, Sanader told reporters.
Cvrtila said that there was no legal mechanism to resolve the situation as the Law on Security Services had not been implemented and that similar problems would recur.
The head of the parliament's Committee on Home Affairs and National Security, Ivan Jarnjak, said that he could not comment on the latest developments because he had not received a report on internal control in the POA requested from the Council for the Civil Control of Security Services.
He stated that relations between President Mesic's office and the government had started to deteriorate with the beginning of the presidential election campaign.
Zeljko Bagic and Franjo Turek said they did not know that the police had pressed charges against them.
Bagic said that after the Council for the Civil Control of Security Services had issued its report it was evident that reporter Puljiz was right about the POA director having abused his position, which was why he should be held accountable.
Turek urged competent bodies to launch an investigation if they suspected him of a criminal act, adding that his case could not be connected in any way with the case of Helena Puljiz.