The government on Tuesday dismissed Nacional weekly's claims that State Attorney General Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek comes to government house regularly to brief Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic about her office's secret inquiries.

“Those are untruths. It is not correct that the prime minister and the state attorney general have met about DORH’s preliminary investigation of (Construction Minister) Ivan Paladina nor is correct the ill-intentioned claim that the state attorney general regularly briefs the prime minister about secret preliminary investigations,” the government said.

“If there is ‘alleged influence’ on DORH and the preliminary investigations that are being conducted, how come the proceedings against former ministers Horvat, Aladrovic and Milosevic have not been foiled, or the earlier arrests of officials before the 2020 parliamentary election?” the government said.

It added that DORH (State Attorney’s Office), the USKOK anti-corruption office and the courts are independent in their work and free of any political government pressure.

The cooperation and communication with DORH concerns topics on which DORH and the government should cooperate, such as arbitration procedures, DORH’s representing of state interests in courts, state assets, and DORH’s legislative and budget framework, the government said.

Nacional says in its latest issue that Hrvoj-Sipek visits Plenkovic in the government at least once a month, that the visits are not logged, and that the prime minister is informed of specific cases.

On Tuesday afternoon, DORH dismissed the newspaper’s report as untrue.