Prime Minister Did Not Request Background Check for Turudić as Candidate for State Attorney-General

In an effort to justify the scandalous choice of Ivan Turudić as State Attorney-General, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has been systematically lying to the Croatian public, notably when assuring them that prior to being elected State Attorney-General, Turudić had passed a background check. By doing so, he is trying to remove all responsibility for electing to the post of State Attorney-General a judge, who, as president of the Zagreb County Court, in 2015 met on a number of occasions with a person who at the time was under investigation and was indicted, and who lied to members of Parliament and the public about the nature and number of his meetings with suspect Josipa Rimac and about his conduct in a case involving his relative.

The truth is the following: the Security-Intelligence Agency (SOA) did not do a background check of Judge Ivan Turudić after 2019 because Prime Minister Plenković did not even request one. Consequently, the SOA did not do a background check of Turudić after he was proposed as a candidate for the post of State Attorney-General. Prime Minister Plenković obtained from the SOA “a summary of all checks done so far”, as publicly admitted by Plenković himself. The summary covers background checks done in 2009, 2014, and 2019. There has been no background check related to Judge Turudić’s actions since 2019, and the Prime Minister is evidently not interested.

Though one can expect the worst decisions by Andrej Plenković at the expense of the Republic of Croatia, his decision to nominate Ivan Turudić for State Attorney-General appalled the President of the Republic. The President therefore decided to verify with the SOA – assuming that the vetting procedure was conducted – if as part of that procedure it had submitted to the Prime Minister also information on forbidden contacts between Turudić as Zagreb County Court president and Zdravko Mamić, who was under investigation by the same court. The President of the Republic was notified on 30 January that the information was not forwarded to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and that he did not request a new background check for Judge Turudić.

In order to protectthe interests of the Republic of Croatia, and in light of the fact that this is a person who is security compromised and who should in no case be appointed State Attorney-General, the President of the Republic requested the SOA to deliver to him documents on clandestine meetings between Turudić and Mamić. The President of the Republic immediately forwarded the documents obtained from the SOA to the Prime Minister on 1 February, requesting that he examine them, collect additional information if necessary, and reconsider his decision on Turudić.

Applying his famous radar approach, Andrej Plenković did not request from the competent services any additional background checks for Turudić, but phoned Turudić, who, imagine that, told him completely unexpectedly the best about himself. Turudić’s word of honour was sufficient for the Prime Minister to instruct his yes-men in the Parliament to elect him State Attorney-General. By consciously avoiding to request a new background check for the person whom he nominated for such an important post, Andrej Plenković has again jeopardized the interests of the Croatian state, acting contrary to the oath taken in the Croatian Parliament as Prime Minister. He has installed at the helm of an institution that has unlimited powers, including the power to prosecute, a man who in his first public statements has shown that his only task is to protect the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the party that has made him, marked him and to which he is indebted.