The We Can! political platform has said that the ruling HDZ party and its MPs Drazen Bosnjakovic and Branko Bacic are not telling the truth about why their party opposes the establishment of a commission to investigate possible political influence on investigations and prosecution of corruption.

We Can! expects the HDZ to stop spreading incorrect information about the inquiry commission and to support the opposition’s motion to establish it so that together we could help the security and judicial system to become more resilient to corruption, said the platform.

“The refusal to establish the inquiry commission encourages corruption in Croatia,” the platform said, recalling that a commission of inquiry for the Institute of Immunology in 2016 interviewed then Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic and that most EU countries’ parliaments can interview both judges and state attorneys, as shown in a report by the European Parliament released this spring.

In that report, Croatia said that exempt from testifying before commissions of inquiry are only confessors and attorneys, with regard to information obtained from their clients, while judges and state attorneys were not mentioned even as an exception, which is not regulated by the law on inquiry commissions anyway, the platform said.

Commission in line with law, HDZ knows everything

“Despite that, the HDZ continues to refuse to support the establishment of the inquiry commission, claiming wrongfully that it would not be in line with the Constitution and laws,” the platform said.

Bosnjakovic has said, among other things, that cases of judges and state attorneys being interviewed by parliamentary inquiry commissions have not been seen in any parliament.

We Can! said this was an attempt to delude the public because in most EU member-countries, inquiry commissions can also interview judicial officials.

Also, in a large number of countries, there are no obstacles for a commission of inquiry to continue working even after judicial proceedings in a specific case have started, the platform said, warning that the HDZ is trying to prevent the inquiry commission from tackling systemic problems in the judiciary as well.