The committee made this conclusion at a four-hour session on Wednesday, which was attended by Interior Minister Marijan Mlinaric, and members and chairmen of the parliamentary Home Policy and National Security Committee and the Council for Civilian Supervision of Security Services, as well as the reporter Helena Puljiz.
After the session, the committee's head, Furio Radin, told reporters that "on the basis of a report of the Council for Civilian Supervision, the findings of the Office of the National Security Council and a statement given by Helena Puljiz, the Human Rights Committee concluded that her human rights guaranteed by the Constitution had been violated".
"We established that parliamentary bodies must consider whether the rules on the conduct of security services are in compliance with the Constitution," Radin added.
He went on to say that the committee at whose helm he is "joins the head of the Home Policy and National Security Committee, Ivan Jarnjak in an apology he has extended to Puljiz".
Radin also said that Jarnjak had dismissed interpretations that the apology was cynical, which the Home Policy Committee expressed in its conclusions saying that it is sad to see that Puljiz "considered the interview as an unpleasant experience".
Radin told reporters that the Human Rights Committee appealed to state institutions and political parties not to use the scandal surrounding the interrogation of Puljiz for petty-political purposes.
Asked whether he believed that the POA head Josko Podbevsek should be relieved of duties, Radin said the Human Rights Committee was not authorised to discuss the organisation of security services but it could only tackle problems regarding human rights.
The Croatian Journalists' Society (HND) head, Dragutin Lucic, and Puljiz voiced satisfaction with today's conclusions.
"We are not going to personnel matters, but the decision of a parliamentary committee has a great moral and political weight," Lucic said.
Puljiz announced that she was going to ask for court protection.
She said that although the Home Policy Committee failed to hear her side of the story, it concluded that the POA agents had not acted unlawfully.