"Mr Ferencak is a person with a high degree of personal and political responsibility who is aware of potential damage his treatment by the media can do to our coalition. He has asked me to take action as a responsible minister to have HANDA change its proposal for members of the Supervisory Board and I, of course, will do so," Cacic told a press conference in comment on media reports on the appointment of Ferencak, who has been sentenced to one year in prison pending appeal for an unlawful sale of state-owned land.

Ferencak is the secretary-general of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), a member of the governing coalition. Cacic is the president of the HNS.

"The HNS leadership and I personally fully stand by Mr Ferencak, confident of his innocence and that the case against him is politically motivated," Cacic said.

Cacic said that if the court confirmed that the case was politically motivated, he counted on Ferencak as a key person in supervising public companies. He added that he had consulted Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and that he had his support on the matter.

Cacic announced that HNS member Kresimir Komljenovic would replace Ferencak on the JANAF Supervisory Board.

When asked if Ferencak's appointment was moral, even if it was lawful, Cacic replied: "It was absolutely lawful and completely moral! It is amoral to attack people who have not received a final court sentence."

Last year the Zagreb County Court sentenced Ferencak to one year in prison pending appeal for making more than 9.5 million kuna (1.26 million euros), together with his associate Petar Turkovic, on an unlawful sale of land owned by the City of Zagreb.