Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic said on Wednesday that an investigation would help determine the authenticity of allegations that Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy leader, Milijan Brkic, had leaked information in 2011 about police investigations.

In an interview with Croatian Radio, Bosnjakovic said an investigation would be launched to check the authenticity of all allegations circulating in the public and the media.

In its latest edition, the Nacional weekly published on Tuesday an article saying it had documents revealing that in 2011 Milijan Brkic – then the national deputy police director – had passed on confidential information about police investigations into an elite prostitution ring, and notified people involved that they were under police surveillance.

Nacional released some police reports which note that Brkic personally leaked information about police probes. The weekly said that even though an internal investigation detected the leak, the then leader of HDZ and interior minister, Tomislav Karamarko, had protected Brkic and buried the report.

The Interior Ministry and the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor are the ones in charge of investigating the matter, and the investigation should be carried out promptly, Bosnjakovic said.

The bodies of the ruling HDZ are unanimous in their view on how the case should be treated, he said.

“The relevant authorities, which have a constitutional duty to deal with such cases, must investigate the matter and make concrete decisions,” he said, warning that prejudging the outcome of the investigation or launching smear campaigns was irrational.

The public is often inclined to act like judge, jury, and executioner, which is damaging to objective and normal proceedings, and can result in major disappointment when investigative and other actions have an outcome different than expected, he said.

“The situation is the same with this case, and I have to admit that I’m not overly impressed with reports and interviews. I believe that people working on the case will use their competence and skills and eventually make the right decisions,” said the minister.

Milijan Brkic was also mentioned in the recent Text Message Affair which has led to the arrest of his close friend Blaz Curic, currently employed as the official driver of the agriculture minister Tomislav Tolusic. Curic was arrested on the suspicion of warning one Franjo Varga – a former police IT specialist – before Varga’s own arrest earlier this month.

Varga is suspected of having created forged text message correspondence for a number of clients, including convicted football boss Zdravko Mamic, former owner of food and retail group Agrokor, Ivica Todoric, who both used them as arguments that court trials against them were framed.

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