Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday the Osijek County Court should have ordered a precautionary measure for former Dinamo football club coach Zoran Mamic, who went to Bosnia and Herzegovina after being sentenced in Croatia and applied for serving his prison term there.

Speaking to the press in Rijeka, Plenkovic said “the Justice Ministry was very clear about ordering precautionary measures for some convicts. The competent court of first instance could and should have ordered a precautionary measure given the circumstances.”

“If our judiciary thinks that this option at their disposal is in any way insufficient or not clear enough and that it should be fine-tuned, they should say so. They are the ones who can decide if certain possibilities are being used in practice or not.”

Plenkovic said trial laws were essential and delicate and that one must also look at the general interest and a defendant’s rights. “In my opinion, such situations shouldn’t occur.”

Asked if the agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina regulating these matters should be changed because of such situations, he said, “We can change the agreement, but I’m more interested in the practice itself which, I must say, has nothing to do with the government.”

“When you look at judiciary independence indicators, the election of judges, their salaries, status – we have done the utmost about that. This is a question of implementation and specific cases which must be treated in such a way to prevent situations like this.”