ZAGREB, Nov 5 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan has dismissed claims that he is covering up a conflict which erupted between the State Prosecutor's Office and the police following the "big tax fraud case". "Neither I nor the
government are covering anything up," he said on Monday in reaction to a statement by Dunja Pavlicek-Patak, the former Zagreb county state prosecutor, who told the press yesterday her replacement was a cover-up of long-standing problems in the relations between the police and the State Prosecutor's Office. She also said it had been easier for Racan and chief state prosecutor Radovan Ortynski to replace her than deal with those problems. Racan said the Constitution authorised the government to move the appointment and replacement of the chief state prosecutor to parliament, and that he had convened a meeting with Interior Minister Sime Lucin, Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic,
ZAGREB, Nov 5 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan has dismissed
claims that he is covering up a conflict which erupted between the
State Prosecutor's Office and the police following the "big tax
fraud case".
"Neither I nor the government are covering anything up," he said on
Monday in reaction to a statement by Dunja Pavlicek-Patak, the
former Zagreb county state prosecutor, who told the press yesterday
her replacement was a cover-up of long-standing problems in the
relations between the police and the State Prosecutor's Office. She
also said it had been easier for Racan and chief state prosecutor
Radovan Ortynski to replace her than deal with those problems.
Racan said the Constitution authorised the government to move the
appointment and replacement of the chief state prosecutor to
parliament, and that he had convened a meeting with Interior
Minister Sime Lucin, Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic,
and Ortynski last week to point to the need of improving the
cooperation of bodies in charge of prosecuting crime.
Asked to comment on some legal experts' opinion that he had breached
the Constitution by inviting the chief state prosecutor to the
talks, the PM said: "It would have been fair to condemn me if I had
invited... only the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry."
Racan claims the talks did not discuss anyone's replacement but
ways of eliminating issues between two autonomous institutions in
view of enhancing the prosecution of crime and citizens' security.
The PM maintains problems between those two bodies evidently exist,
and that one reason is that some legislative solutions might not be
good and should be changed.
He also concedes there is some intolerance on the personal level and
that the two sides should settle this. "It is an unnecessary
conflict," the PM said.
Interior Minister Lucin declined to comment on the work of the State
Prosecutor's Office in connection with the "big tax fraud case",
telling reporters the Interior Ministry and police had never done
so and would not in the future either.
He maintains the State Prosecutor's Office and the police should
settle their issues at meetings, not through the media, and that it
was not in the interest of the police to investigate something that
did not have an epilogue in court.
(hina) ha