High Criminal Court judge Ivan Turudic, who has been nominated by the government for the new State Attorney-General, on Sunday dismisses all the accusations leveled against him by President Zoran Milanovic and the Opposition about his connection with suspects implicated in murky dealings.

“I have expected negative reactions and attacks to occur, but I have not expected such intensity of hatred towards me, which amounts to hysteria from some parliamentary deputies and some media outlets,” Turudic told Hina on Sunday.

Milanovic insists that Turudic must not become the new State Attorney-General as there exist serious security barriers, and the Opposition says that excerpts published by the Jutarnji List daily from his whatsapp correspondence with a former state secretary, Josipa Rimac Culina, who has been indicted for corruption in the meantime, show also that he does fit for this job.

As for Milanovic’s statement on Saturday that in the event that he becomes the chief prosecutor, Turudic “will go through all the files on his first day at work” which Milanovic pointed out as problematic, Turudic told Hina:” I do not know what he is afraid of, I do not know what he targets at, but evidently, there is palpable fear.”

As for Milanovic’s statements that while he was the president of the Zagreb County Court, Turudic met with football mogul Zdravko Mamic, who was under investigation, and that the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) had also information about that, Turudic said that it was correct that he met Mamic three times in 2015.

“After our last encounter, he was remanded in custody. This shows how much I helped him,” Turudic said.

He recalled that the investigation against Mamic resulted into an indictment against him and Mamic was found guilty.

As for Milanovic’s statement the those meetings in 2015 were held under very strange circumstances, and that they were impermissible for the president of the county court, Turudic said that the meetings had not taken place at any “secret places” but outside his flat or in his car.

Turudic recalls that he had been vetted by SOA about that and that he had been passed that vetting to become a judge specialised for corruption and organised crime cases.

He went on to say that he had never denied the acquaintance with Mamic, and that it is interesting that this fact is being accentuated nine years after those events.

Turudic: I have been vetted four times

The nominee for the new State Attorney-General has told Hina that during his career in the judiciary, he has been vetted three times and when he applied for the job of the State Attorney-General he had acceded to being vetting one more time.

“This will be the fourth time that I have been vetted, and few judges in Croatia have been vetted four times.”

When this fact is presented to Milanovic, he replies that vetting is not done properly and that SOA does not do its job, the judge says.

As for accusations about his connections with former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who has been found guilty of graft and influence-peddling, Turudic says that Sanader was found guilty of the charges at the County Court which he (Turudic) presided at the time.

Concerning his connections with the ruling HDZ party, Turudic recalls that the party as a legal entity had also been found guilty.

Concerning his cousin, Miro Vrlja, Turudic said that during his term as the county court president, Vrlja was also given a prison sentence.

This shows how much I helped those suspects, Turudic said in an ironic comment on his connections with suspects involved in wrongdoings.

Regarding his relationship with Josipa Rimac, he said that they used to be “good terms and nothing more”.

Turudic added that he had never denied the acquaintance with Josipa Rimac and that during their meetings for various reasons she had not been under investigation.

He said that he could not be responsible for messages she had sent to third persons.