The Croatian Bar Association (HOK) Steering Board decided on Thursday that although it fully supports its president Leo Andreis, it will not press charges against Croatian President Ivo Josipovic for defamation, because it believes that possible legal action would be used for political score-settling.
HOK president Andreis said on Wednesday he would ask the HOK's steering board to bring defamation charges against President Josipovic.
Andreis was particularly angered by Josipovic's statement: "I don't remember a time, or maybe it was very long ago in some past system, when the Bar Association reacted this promptly to encouragement from politicians."
Josipovic made the statement on Tuesday in a comment on the disciplinary action taken by the HOK against the attorney Anto Nobilo over his interview in Globus magazine in which he said that investigators were trying to narrow down the investigation of fraud in the state-owned electricity company HEP and the Sibenik-based light metal factory TLM to his client, former deputy prime minister Damir Polancec, in order to protect government officials and force Polancec to testify against former prime minister Ivo Sanader.
