President Ivo Josipovic said on Thursday that the Homeland War Veterans Register that was made public on the Internet was not a complete list, but "a teaser" that only disturbed the veterans and ordinary citizens.
Josipovic was speaking at a press conference after receiving a delegation of the Roma community on the occasion of International Roma Day.
The President said that the register was not released by his office, but was "leaked from the government" for the purpose of blaming someone else.
"We don't even have that information, nor did we ever have it. That information was leaked from the government, from one or two ministries, (...) with the intention of blaming someone else," Josipovic said when asked to comment on the statement by the head of the disabled war veterans association HVIDRA, Josip Djakic, who had indirectly accused the President's Office of publishing the register.
Josipovic said he agreed with Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor that the portion of the register was published by "the intelligence underworld". He called on the police and the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate the case and urged the government and parliament to pass necessary regulations and publish the register.
Blogger Marko Rakar was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of posting the Veterans Register online. He was released from police custody later on Wednesday.
Josipovic said that Rakar was not the person that had published the register. He confirmed he had communicated with Rakar by email and that he had told him to contact his national security adviser, Sasa Perkovic.
Perkovic advised Rakar to contact the police and Rakar, being a law-abiding citizen, did so, the President said.
Rakar should have been a presidential adviser, but Josipovic eventually did not appoint him after it emerged that he owed the state more than a million kuna in unpaid taxes and contributions.
