Post by radovic on Oct 22, 2007 10:52:58 GMT -5
Croatia Journalist's Arrest Condemned
22 10 2007 Zagreb _ Senior Croatian officials met on Monday to discuss the case of a journalist who was briefly detained last week on suspicion of having revealed state secrets.
The arrest of freelance journalist Zeljko Peratovic on Wednesday sparked public outrage.
The Croatian Journalists’ Union, the Croatian Helsinki Committee and the opposition Social Democrats were among organizations which condemned the arrest.
With just a week to go before the parliamentary election campaign opens, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he would carefully examine the case.
Peratovic was set free a day after his arrest, and it is still not clear who had launched the original investigation against him.
After his release Peratovic told reporters that the police were investigating him in connection with the alleged revelation of state and military secrets through the publication of three documents.
Peratovic said one of those documents, published on his blog, had already been submitted to the parliamentary committee on home affairs and national security as evidence that the Counter-Intelligence Agency, POA, had shown an interest in him in relation to the case of retired general Ante Gotovina who is awaiting trial before the Hague war crimes Tribunal for the former Yugslavia.
According to Peratovic, he was among a group of reporters being considered “as working against Croatia".
Peratovic said the other two documents had already been published by the weeklies, "Nacional" and "Hrvatsko Slovo", and added that these documents included references to the British secret intelligence service and to a meeting between its agents and a former Croatian police chief, Ranko Ostojic.
The ministry of the interior issued a statement at the weekend which said that police had acted on a request from public prosecutors.
Other reports suggested that the investigation had been launched by the POA.
Croatian media reports said that chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic, police chief Marijan Benko and POA director Tomislav Karamarko were due to meet on Monday to discuss the Peratovic case.
The interior ministry’s spokesperson, Krunoslav Borovec, told Balkan Insight that Bajic and Benko had met “in accordance with their usual briefing activities”.
He said that the Peratovic case was now in the hands of the state prosecutor.
22 10 2007 Zagreb _ Senior Croatian officials met on Monday to discuss the case of a journalist who was briefly detained last week on suspicion of having revealed state secrets.
The arrest of freelance journalist Zeljko Peratovic on Wednesday sparked public outrage.
The Croatian Journalists’ Union, the Croatian Helsinki Committee and the opposition Social Democrats were among organizations which condemned the arrest.
With just a week to go before the parliamentary election campaign opens, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he would carefully examine the case.
Peratovic was set free a day after his arrest, and it is still not clear who had launched the original investigation against him.
After his release Peratovic told reporters that the police were investigating him in connection with the alleged revelation of state and military secrets through the publication of three documents.
Peratovic said one of those documents, published on his blog, had already been submitted to the parliamentary committee on home affairs and national security as evidence that the Counter-Intelligence Agency, POA, had shown an interest in him in relation to the case of retired general Ante Gotovina who is awaiting trial before the Hague war crimes Tribunal for the former Yugslavia.
According to Peratovic, he was among a group of reporters being considered “as working against Croatia".
Peratovic said the other two documents had already been published by the weeklies, "Nacional" and "Hrvatsko Slovo", and added that these documents included references to the British secret intelligence service and to a meeting between its agents and a former Croatian police chief, Ranko Ostojic.
The ministry of the interior issued a statement at the weekend which said that police had acted on a request from public prosecutors.
Other reports suggested that the investigation had been launched by the POA.
Croatian media reports said that chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic, police chief Marijan Benko and POA director Tomislav Karamarko were due to meet on Monday to discuss the Peratovic case.
The interior ministry’s spokesperson, Krunoslav Borovec, told Balkan Insight that Bajic and Benko had met “in accordance with their usual briefing activities”.
He said that the Peratovic case was now in the hands of the state prosecutor.