The Croatian government on Thursday decided to propose High Criminal Court judge Ivan Turudic as the candidate for the new State Attorney General.

Turudic will succeed the current head of the prosecutorial authorities (DORH), Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek, if his appointment is supported by at least 76 lawmakers in the 151-seat national parliament.

Turudic was one of the four shortlisted candidates for this position after Hrvoj-Sipek said that she would not rerun for the office. The other three were lawyer Mladen Dragicevic, Deputy State Attorney-General Emilijo Kalabric and Split County Deputy Prosecutor Niksa Wagner.

‘Distinguished judge with great experience’

Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic said that the eight-member government task force in charge of nominating the best candidate for the post, which on Wednesday interviewed all four candidates, had unanimously opted for Turudic.

The task force also found that Turudic’s programme was the best and that it provided the most convincing arguments in favour of his appointment, the PM said, adding that Turudic is “a distinguished judge with great experience.”