ZAGREB, July 20, 2018 – After the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Varaždin on Thursday called on mayor Ivan Čehok to resign as he was sentenced pending appeal to two years in prison for fraud, the local branch of the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) too demanded that he and his deputies should step down.
“We warned before the local election in 2017 that it was not good that a person burdened by three indictments was running for mayor. We believed then and continue to believe that it was a burden not only on him but on the entire town administration as well as on the town’s image,” the party said, recalling that it came to power in 2011 when Čehok resigned due to investigations that were launched against him at the time.
Čehok was sentenced on Thursday pending appeal to two years in prison after the court found him guilty of the charges of having favoured companies owned by his co-defendant, Varaždin businessman Davor Patafta, and defrauding the town budget of 14 million kuna between late 2007 and mid-2011.
“The trial chamber decided that the crimes Čehok was charged defrauded the town of about six million kuna and advised the town to file a lawsuit seeking damages. Will the current mayor and his deputies who support him now gather a legal team to sue themselves?” the HNS said.
The president of the Varažin Town Council and of the local HDZ party Damir Habijan said on Friday that he did not want to comment on Čehok’s sentence as it was not final. He recalled that Čehok was re-elected mayor a year ago even though voters were aware that he had been indicted.
