\u201cIf that regulation takes effect, if a sufficient number of corrupt creatures in Parliament support it, I promise everyone who breaks that law that I will pardon them if they are targeted. I finally see the purpose of the institute of Presidential pardon: to stand up against oppressors and crooks and those who would want to arrest others. Any reporter, editor, any lawyer who gets arrested will get my pardon,\u201d the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 said today, commenting on the Government\u2019s proposal to amend the Penal Code to criminalise information leaks from investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President of the Republic warned that the proposed amendment to the law is \u201cabout a man\u2019s maniacal drive to demand his pound of flesh, to take revenge,\u201d he said in reference to Prime Minister Plenkovi\u0107. President Milanovi\u0107 reminded that his Government suspended investigation secrecy in 2013 \u201cand declared investigations non-public because for a number of years no related proceedings had been launched due to information leaks from investigations.\u201d \u201cAnd do you know who leaked information the most? DORH and USKOK (Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime),\u201d President Milanovi\u0107 added, warning that DORH (State Prosecutor\u2019s Office) benefited the most from that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen in the later stages of investigations, when the documentation became available to everyone, the defense teams also started doing it \u2013 everyone did it according to their needs. Not a single criminal proceeding had been launched and in order to change that travesty, that farce, we simply abolished investigation secrecy,\u201d President Milanovi\u0107 clarified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Milanovi\u0107 explained the current Government\u2019s intention to reintroduce investigation secrecy in the following way: \u201cA vengeful prot\u00e9g\u00e9 bent on tyrannising reporters because someone published a photo of his wife, without any bad intention. Stupidity and plain nonsense, nothing. Or, because the (leaks) that had been coming out of that investigation, from the (telephone) conversations, show what kind of party and Government he runs and what kind of people they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, President Milanovi\u0107 believes that this event speaks to the importance of oversight of institutions such as DORH. \u201cThat is incredibly important, because otherwise these people will do whatever they want, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve started doing. We can see what kind of conversations, contacts happen. Most of them probably do not constitute an offence but they reveal what DORH does do and what it does not do. If we had not read this information \u2013 which this time may have been leaked by the lawyers and published by the newspapers \u2013 we would not know what kind of relations and parallels reign in that world,\u201d said the President, adding that some legitimate questions can be raised now that the documents have been made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy did DORH, which has information on this, not investigate the former deputy head of Plenkovi\u0107\u2019s cabinet, who ran off to Brussels? She should have been investigated, but DORH did not do that,\u201d said President Milanovi\u0107, adding that otherwise, the interested public would not know about these scams and would not be able to ask a fully legitimate question: why did they detain these particular individuals, and not even talk to the others? \u201cWell, that\u2019s what Plenkovi\u0107 wants to keep out of sight. That\u2019s the main motive, followed by the personal motive to demand his pound of flesh,\u201d said President Milanovi\u0107, warning that \u201cif that barbaric and maniacal regulation takes effect,\u201d he would use the institute of Presidential pardon for anyone who is targeted by the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIf that regulation takes effect, if a sufficient number of corrupt creatures in Parliament support it, I promise everyone who breaks that law that I will pardon them if they are targeted. I finally see the purpose of the institute of Presidential pardon: to stand up against oppressors and crooks and those who would want to arrest others. Any reporter, editor, any lawyer who gets arrested will get my pardon,\u201d the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 said today, commenting on the Government\u2019s proposal to amend the Penal Code to criminalise information leaks from investigations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26018,"template":"","news-cat":[12],"class_list":["post-26038","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n