The police acted in line with the court order, Croatian Interior Ministry spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said on Friday in a comment on the dissatisfaction expressed by Mirjana Sanader, the wife of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, after the police on Thursday evening asked her and her daughter Bruna to show them their ID cards outside their house in Zagreb's Kozarceva Street.
"I cannot comment on (Mrs Sanader's) satisfaction or dissatisfaction, it is a personal matter. But I have to say that the police acted in line with the judge's order and that order was clear," Borovec told reporters after they asked him about the position of the Ministry of the Interior to Mrs Sanader's criticism that the police prevented her and her daughter from entering their home and took their passports.
Borovec said that the investigating judge's order authorised the police to monitor the Sanader family residence and check the identity of every person entering or leaving it, as well as to take care that valuables, primarily works of art, were not taken out of the house.
Borovec dismissed as untrue criticisms that the police took Mrs Sanader's and her daughter's passports, that their house was sealed, or that someone was denied entry into the house.
He confirmed that when asked by the police to produce their papers, the former PM's wife and daughter gave their passports to the police, who returned them after checking their identity.
Asked if the police had started appraising and registering the Sanader family's property, Borovec said that it was not a job for the police.
The court order on the basis of which the police were outside Sanader's house last evening was signed by Zagreb County Court judge Ratko Scekic, who did it at the request of the anti-corruption agency USKOK. Officials at USKOK declined comment today.
In an interview, Scekic would not say anything about the content of the order, saying only that it "has to do" with the Sanader family house in Kozarceva Street.
The media speculate that the police have been watching Sanader's house since Thursday in order to prevent valuable paintings, which Sanader reportedly possesses, from being taken away. The court recently froze Sanader's property and the property of his immediate family, including several bank accounts in Croatia.
Sanader's attorney Ivan Lovric said on Thursday evening that the Zagreb police briefly took Mrs Sanader's and her daughter Bruna's passports, but returned them shortly afterwards. Borovec said the police were checking who was entering and leaving the house, on the judge's orders, due to valuables.
Sanader has been in extradition custody in Salzburg since December 10 when he was arrested on a warrant issued by Croatian authorities over suspected involvement in a corruption case.
