Sauchi’s Immunity Removed Again

The Croatian Parliament on Friday, at the request of the State Attorney’s Office (DORH) and the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK), ‘further’ removed the immunity of MP Tomislav Saucha, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Zoran Milanović (SDP), who is suspected in the Daily Allowances affair.

Saucha’s immunity was first removed in February due to suspicion that he falsified 117 travel orders. This time it was done due to reasonable suspicion that he committed two criminal offenses of abuse of position and authority and forgery of an official or business document. The Parliament decided to remove Saucha’s immunity, while he was sitting in the parliamentary bench, by a majority vote: 66 MPs voted ‘for’, 25 against, and 15 abstained.

>>>Sauchi’s immunity removed with five votes ‘for’ and three opposition ‘against’

The SDP, which had previously stated that it has “reduced trust” in the work of DORH, reiterated that the existing parliamentary practice of removing immunity whenever requested by DORH or the court should be reconsidered, not when requested by a private prosecutor.

– I propose that the vote on the removal of immunity not be conducted today, but next Friday, and that until then we at least try to establish a new practice in the removal of immunity, proposed Arsen Bauk, president of the SDP Club. This would show, he says, that MPs have the right to decide, and that they are not mere “mailboxes”.

HDZ’s Branko Bačić responded that his party has no problem discussing whether the existing practice is good or not, but that this should be discussed in a situation where there is no request to remove the immunity of any MP.

I agree with my colleague Božo Petrov that we should discuss this at the parliamentary Presidency, said Bačić. The Parliament rejected the removal of immunity for MP Mladen Madjer (HSS), who was privately sued back in 2013 by Josip Krajačić, accusing him of two criminal offenses – insult and threat.