ZAGREB, April 19 (Hina) - State Prosecutor Radovan Ortynski who submitted his resignation last week, on Friday advocated the establishment of an investigating commission because he can, as he said in the parliament, prove everything
he said about the connection between organised crime and authority institutions and media by giving names.
ZAGREB, April 19 (Hina) - State Prosecutor Radovan Ortynski who
submitted his resignation last week, on Friday advocated the
establishment of an investigating commission because he can, as he
said in the parliament, prove everything he said about the
connection between organised crime and authority institutions and
media by giving names.#L#
He said that over the past ten years Croatia, was El Dorado for
crime. According to him, police have data on this.
After a parliamentary discussion on his replacement, Ortynski
mentioned a series of criminal cases on which police had data:
international smuggling of cigarettes and weapons, an unnamed bank
in which, according to him, money was being laundered, weapons'
warehouses with anti-rockett system which does not belong to the
army and the transformation of Croatian daily "Vecernji list".
He said that the former Yugoslavia was closely linked to terrorist
countries, such as Iraq and Libya. He said similar things were
happening in Croatia in the past ten years "only in gloves".
He also mentioned the verdict to the so-called small criminal
organisation, which had not been written for three months. Ortynski
said that some verdicts had been in the process of writing for seven
to eight years.
He also pointed to the change of judges in the case against Kutle.
"I am leaving with my head up, my successor will have a difficult job
without your help," Ortynski told MPs.
He said the government failed to provide adequate premises for the
office for the prevention of organised crime and corruption. He
said the State Prosecutor's Office needed financial experts,
without whom it was impossible to solve cases of economic crime and
follow business movements.
Ortynski said he resigned because of the politics. He said he read a
parts of an unsigned report of the Justice Ministry which on March
21 positively assessed his work in combating organised crime and
corruption.
According to Ortynski, the Ministry's report said that the work of
the State Prosecutor's Office was legal and that decisions were
timely and in line with the law, with legal and expert
explanations.
The majority of regional state prosecutor's offices have
maintained or increased promptness from the year before. The level
of promptness has only been reduced in Zagreb and Slavonski Brod,
Ortynski said.
According to him, the Ministry said that the reason for backlogs in
the State Prosecutor's Office were a lack of personnel.
He also stated a Ministry's assessment that the State Prosecutor
had realised numerous contacts with State authority bodies and the
international community, aiming at a better prevention of
organised crime, terrorism and corruption.
"I have also read the Ministry's claim that the State Prosecutor had
promoted the international work of the State Prosecutor's Office
and that it was satisfied with the results the Office had achieved,"
Ortynski said.
The Croatian parliament ended this week's session. The MPs will
vote on Ortynski's replacement next week. They are also expected to
vote the appointment of new State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic.
(hina) it sb