PARLIAMENT ON STRIPPING THREE HDZ MEMBERS OF IMMUNITY

ZAGREB, Nov 15 (Hina) - A request for stripping Drago Krpina of his parliamentary immunity is completely unfounded and has no legal grounds, said Vladimir Seks, on behalf of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), in the parliament Thursday. Seks said this during a discussion on a proposal by the credentials and privileges commission that the State Prosecution be allowed to prosecute three HDZ officials suspected of having instigated the abuse of authorities during the sale of the "Slobodna Dalmacija" daily. The Municipal State Prosecutor's Office in Split asked that Krpina be stripped of immunity because he is suspected of instigating, as a government commissioner for Dalmatia, the abuse of authorities in the ownership transformation process in "Slobodna Dalmacija". "This is absolutely unfounded, because at the time when the crime was allegedly committed, Krpina had not been the government's commissioner for Dalmatia for over a year", Seks said. Seks said all three requests for stripping of immunities (Drago Krpina, Ivic Pasalic and Ivan Jarnjak) were in fact "rigged political processes." Luka Trncotic of the Croatian Peasants' Party advocated that the HDZ deputies be stripped of immunities, and added "the parliament cannot get involved in the assessment of the facts because this would turn the parliament into a court room". Ivic Pasalic advocated that he be stripped of immunity, stressing, however, deputies should somehow be protected from verbal harassment, similar to those he suffers from the Chief State Prosecutor, Radovan Ortinsky. (hina) np sb