ZAGREB, 28 December, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday he would be satisfied with the work of the security services only after he got a broader picture of the shooting incident that had occurred outside the government headquarters in Zagreb last year.
"I, as the prime minister, want to know where the gun came from, I don't know that, who taught the gunman to shoot and why. When I hear the answers to these questions or get a broader picture of how all that happened, I will be satisfied. As long as I don't know that, I will not be satisfied," Plenković told reporters during a visit to northwestern Varaždin County.
Plenković was referring to the 12 October 2020 incident in which 22-year-old Danijel Bezuk opened fire at the government building in St Mark's Square in Zagreb using an automatic rifle. He shot and seriously wounded one of the three police officers who were standing guard there. The attacker fled the scene and committed suicide shortly afterwards.
Plenković was asked by the press if he had any fresh information on the attack after he said last week that the relevant services had not sufficiently investigated the case.
Siniša Hajdaš Dončić, the newly appointed chair of the parliamentary Defence and National Security Committee, has announced in a newspaper interview that the Committee will soon discuss the shooting incident.
Hajdaš Dončić told Novi List newspaper he did not believe the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) and the police would not have responded if there had been information about a potential terrorist threat.
"I don't understand why they would ignore such information and thus jeopardise national security. However, one should not rule out the possibility that the prime minister is right and that he is in possession of certain information on this matter which the police and SOA are refusing to follow up on. These are very serious statements and that's why we have to establish what exactly is at issue here. When the prime minister publicly expresses his doubts about the work of the police and the intelligence agency, that must not be ignored," Hajdaš Dončić said.
