Minister, State Secretary and PM’s Aide to Testify in Wind Park Scandal

ZAGREB, June 1, 2020 – Agriculture Minister Marija Vuckovic, state-secretary in her ministry, Tugomir Majdak and deputy chief of staff in the prime minister’s office, Tena Misetic will testify in the wind park scandal involving former state secretary Josipa Rimac, Hina heard from sources close to the probe.

Vuckovic, Majdak and Misetic will be questioned as witnesses because their names were mentioned during wiretapping of conversations Rimac, a former state secretary in the Administration Ministry until last week when she was dismissed after the scandal broke out.

According to sources with close knowledge of the investigation, Rimac allegedly mentioned Misetic in a conversation with Anton Sladic, a businessman from Sibenik, who is a suspect in the scandal. Rimac informed Sladic that Ruzica Njavro, chief of staff at the Agriculture Ministry, had allegedly contacted the prime minister’s deputy chief of staff to accelerate the process and approve subsidies.

Rimac allegedly reminded Sladic to submit an application to the ministry along with Zagreb businessman Josip Ravlic, another suspect in the case, and that the ministry “would not be able to ignore the application because the caretaker government can adopt regulations.”

Majdak is mentioned in the conversation between Rimac and Sladic in which Rimac, who used to be the mayor of Knin, allegedly said that Dean Zoran Grgic of the Faculty of Agronomy had spoken with Majdak and sent him an email in which he listed objections in an attempt to have the regulation on the lease of forest land, amended. The USKOK anti-corruption office claims that the amendments curried favour with Sladic.

At the motion of the USKOK anti-corruption office, a Zagreb County Court investigating judge on Saturday set one month’s detention for Rimac and another six suspects in this case involving the construction of a wind park in the Dalmatian hinterland.

Detention was also set for Natasa Turbic, the ruling HDZ party’s head of Gracac municipality, Njavro, Marinko Tokmacija, a Knin city councillor, and the businessman Sladic. They have been detained to prevent them from witness tampering. The judge dismissed USKOK’s motion that the suspects be placed in custody also to prevent them from possibly repeating their crimes.

Detention was also set for C.E.M.P. company owner Milenko Basic and director Dragan Stipic, both of whom are beyond the reach of Croatian police.

Besides Rimac, Turbic, Njavro, Tokmacija, Sladic, Basic and Stipic, criminal reports were filed against Hrvatske Sume forest management company CEO Krunoslav Jakupcic, the head of its Split branch, Ivan Melvan, the head of the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency, Tomislav Jurekovic, Zagreb businessman Ravlic, Knin businessman Nikola Lapcic and Ana Mandac, an assistant economy minister sacked last Friday.

 

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