The State Judicial Council (DSV) confirmed on Tuesday that the disciplinary procedure against Radovan Dobronic, a candidate for Supreme Court president, won't be finalised before the appointment of the president of the highest court in the country, so that it does not affect the selection process.

During a recent hearing before the parliamentary Judiciary Committee, Dobronic said that he had learned of the disciplinary procedure against him for not meeting the judicial norm from the media, while the Committee has called for additional details related to the procedure against Dobronić, who is President Zoran Milanovic’s candidate to head the Supreme Court.

The DSV said that Parliament had requested the additional information yesterday and that Judge Dobronic had given his approval for that, in accordance with the DSV rules of procedure.

DSV added that it is not “blocking the selection of the Supreme Court president as claimed by some media outlets,” given that the disciplinary procedure against Dobronic was launched prior to the public call of 1 October 2020.

“DSV will act in the disciplinary procedure against Judge Dobronic when this particular case comes to hand, in the order in which it was received, and that certainly will not be during the process of selection of the Supreme Court president, so that it does not influence the selection.”

Responding to claims that Dobronic learned of the disciplinary action in the media, DSV said that there is no set rule for the DSV to notify any party of such action, however “most court presidents would advise a fellow judge that a procedure has been launched against them.”

Bacic (HDZ): DSV should have dealt with Dobronić case long ago

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) whip Branko Bacic said that he has not seen the document the parliamentary committee had requested, but that he believes that the DSV should have dealt with the Dobronic case long ago.

“Given that the procedure against Judge Dobronic was launched a year ago, I believe that the DSV was almost obliged to have resolved that case,” said Bacic.

“I assume that this case would be an aggravating circumstance and am not certain that he can be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. Thus, if the DSV does not resolve this case and Parliament, acting at the recommendation of the President of the Republic, appoints Dobronic as president of the Supreme Court, the disciplinary procedure against him will be automatically suspended because, according to the law, procedures cannot be conducted against the president of the Supreme Court,” Bačić said.

He concluded by saying that the parliamentary majority would make its decision after examining the DSV report and “all the aspects” of the recent hearing before by the parliamentary judiciary committee.

Dobronic: The system is using tricks to hamper the procedure

Apart from Dobronic, other candidates who were interviewed for the position of Supreme Court president included Barbara Gundic, Marin Mrcela, Lana Petö Kujundzic and Sime Savic. The committee’s opinion is non-binding.

The committee decided that it needs all the information related to the disciplinary procedure against Dobronic.

Responding to the committee’s questions, Dobronic said that he had learned about the disciplinary procedure from the media and that in 2019, when he didn’t meet the required norm, he was dealing with older cases, appeals and cases handled by other judges, which are not incorporated in the working hours calculated in the norm.

“I don’t feel affected by that because it is completely off the point and wrong,” said Dobronic, adding that the system knows about that problem in the judiciary, but it is now using it as a trick to hamper its work. This is one of the problems in the system he wishes to resolve by controlling the quality of work, he added.