The Croatian parliament on Wednesday elected Ivan Turudic the new State Attorney-General for a term of four years.

His appointment was supported by 78 deputies, while 60 voted against and two abstained.

Turudic will succeed Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek, whose term ends in May.

Before the vote, the Opposition again strongly criticised Turudic’s nomination for the post, calling on members of the parliamentary majority not to support him.

After the vote, SDP leader Pedja Grbin called for “observing a minute’s silence for the judiciary”, noting that Turudic’s appointment was “the last nail in the coffin for the judiciary.”

Turudic was appointed following a procedure in which four candidates for State Attorney-General were heard by the parliamentary Judiciary Committee and a government commission consisting of the prime minister and seven ministers, which then proposed Turudic to Parliament with the assessment that his work programme was the best.

His opponents were lawyer Mladen Dragcevic, current deputy state attorney-general Emilijo Kalabric, and a deputy county state attorney from Split, Niksa Wagner.

Controversial acquaintances and major verdicts

Turudić comes to his new position with fierce criticism from the opposition, which highlights his controversial relationship with people like football mogul Zdravko Mamic, a fugitive from the Croatian judiciary staying in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and former state secretary Josipa Pleslic (ex-Rimac), who is a defendant in the Wind Park case.

The correspondence between Turudic and Rimac, made public by the media before the parliamentary decision on his appointment, united the opposition in the opinion that Turudic is not a suitable candidate for the leadership position in the Office of the State Attorney General and that the ruling party should drop his election.

Turudic was born near Virovitica in 1962 and graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Law in 1987. He became a judge at the Virovitica Municipal Court in 1991 and later its president, was a Homeland War volunteer, and was appointed assistant justice minister in 1999.

He arrived at the Zagreb County Court in 2000, working as an investigating judge for two years, as the chair of the court’s anti-corruption division from March 2009 to the end of 2010, and was elected court president in 2012.

During that time, Turudic delivered non-final convictions for former prime minister Ivo Sanader for bribe-taking and abuse of office and power, former deputy prime minister Damir Polancec, and former ambassador Neven Jurica.

Turudic also tried entrepreneur Hrvoje Petrac for the abduction of general Vladimir Zagorec’s son and Mladen Slogar for the murder of Ivana Hodak, daughter of former minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak and attorney Zvonimir Hodak.

Media described Turudic as a friend of football mogul Zdravko Mamic, former HDZ president Tomislav Karamarko and former HDZ official Milijan Brkic, and reproached him for socialising with key witnesses in the Fimi Media corruption case and meetings with Josipa Rimac, a former state secretary currently indicted for corruption in the Wind Park case.

In the past, Turudic proposed imprisonment for claims that the Homeland War was a civil war, and visited the war veterans who protested outside their ministry for 18 months.

Per his declaration of assets, Turudic has a constant gross income ranging between €4,200 and €4,350, a 120-m2 flat in Zagreb, a house, two fields and vineyards in Virovitica, and two cars.