The State Attorney's Office has opened an investigation into the case of former Health Minister Vili Beros on reasonable suspicion of the criminal offence of unauthorised disclosure of the contents of an investigative or evidentiary measure under Article 307.a of the Criminal Code, known as "lex AP".

According to the Municipal State Attorney’s office in Zagreb, the investigation is being carried out “to establish the identity of an unknown perpetrator and to gather facts and evidence necessary for a well-founded criminal judgement.”

“The investigation is related to publicly disclosed data and information about the investigations of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb against eight persons, including the former Minister of Health, managers of two Zagreb hospital institutions and two legal entities, on reasonable suspicion of committing criminal offences such as bribery, abuse of office and money laundering,” the statement from the Zagreb City Prosecutor’s Office reads.

This comes after Tuesday’s press conference at which Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic condemned the recent publication of information from investigations and hearings in the Beros case, describing this practise as unacceptable and illegal.

“What kind of behaviour is this? Witness statements, names and all the details are being leaked to the media. This is illegal and outrageous. We have seen this in the judiciary for 30 years and it is anything but normal,” he said.