Deputy Parliament Speaker and deputy leader of the ruling HDZ party, Milijan Brkic, will not be charged with unlawfully monitoring four women's electronic communications, and neither will his brother Jozo, his close friend Blaz Curic, and former police computer expert Franjo Varga.

Even though prosecutorial authorities have still not formally decided on the case, the Jutarnji List daily of Sunday says that Brkic and the other three men will almost certainly not be indicted in the case because the investigation did not support the initial suspicion that the Brkic brothers, Curic and Varga had committed the offence in question.

After an investigation was launched into Varga on the suspicion that he made for former Dinamo football club executive Zdravko Mamic fake text messages between a former chief state prosecutor and judges from Osijek, as well as that he made similar correspondence for former Agrokor owner Ivica Todoric, police found other interesting details while examining Varga’s computer equipment, including information on four women’s text messages and e-mail correspondence.

Based on the information as well as on what Varga said when presenting his defence, police launched an investigation and filed a criminal report with prosecutorial authorities in Osijek.

In mid-April, the prosecution said that “four Croatian nationals” were under investigation for unlawfully intercepting electronic communications, incitement to such activities, and for computer abuse.

At the time, four women, aged 49, 30, 42 and 31, were mentioned as the victims.

As soon as the media mentioned the fact that one of the four women was Milijan Brkic’s former wife, she came forward and described the accusations as shameful fabrications.

The other person, whose electronic correspondence Varga allegedly monitored at Brkic’s request, was the head of a municipality in the Dalmatian hinterland.

Jutarnji List’s sources said that prosecutors in Osijek believe that in this case there are no elements of offences that are prosecuted ex officio but of possibly milder offences such as invasion of the secrecy of letters, which are prosecuted if the injured party requests so.

Since no such motions have been filed in this case, no indictment can be expected, the daily said.

Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic today declined to comment on the Jutarnji List article, saying only that as a minister he is not familiar with and cannot speak about ongoing investigations.