The President of the High criminal court Zeljko Horvatovic, with the consent of the President of the Supreme court Radovan Dobronic, has filed a complaint against the judge of the High criminal court Ivan Turudic for violation of the code of Judicial Ethics, the highest court reported on Thursday.

According to a press release issued by the Supreme court, Judge Turudic apparently met several times with a person under investigation and thus violated the code of Judicial Ethics.

“We would like to point out that the procedure for selecting the State Attorney-General is the responsibility of the Government and Parliament. However, until the appointed Attorney General takes office, he is a judge and only the judicial authority (court presidents, judicial councils and the State Judicial council) is responsible for evaluating the judge’s actions,” the court stated in a press release.

No sanctions predicted

The code of Judicial Ethics does not provide for any sanctions. “It is merely a collegial warning to the judge that he has not behaved properly and in accordance with ethical standards,” the judges familiar with these proceedings explained for N1 Zagreb.

It is difficult to predict whether this entire procedure will be carried out before Turudic is sworn in as State Attorney-General when he ceases to be a judge.

However, the last publicly available procedure for a possible violation of the code of Judicial Ethics was conducted against judges from the city of Split who, despite the lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, were partying in in the tavern belonging to the controversial former Split Mayor, Zeljko Kerum. The proceedings against them were conducted within three months – they were reported in February 2021, and at the end of May 2021 they were found to have violated the code.

The term of office of the current State Attorney-General Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek expires in just over three months, on 26 May. It is therefore realistic to expect that the decision on Turudic’s potential liability will be made before that date.

It is important to note that there are no consequences for violating the code, except that the judge who violated the code will receive a warning not to do so again.