April the 7th, 2023 – This week in Croatian politics, we’ve seen ex Prime Minister but current prison inmate Ivo Sanader’s art collection begin being sold off, Plenkovic has been accused of encroaching on peoples’ rights by a law expert, another HDZ official has been accused of inappropriate behaviour, and more. Happy Easter!
Former PM Ivo Sanader’s art collections are being sold off
Ivo Sanader is arguably HDZ’s most infamous criminal of all, currently serving his sentence in Remetinec prison for corruption. His art collection is now being sold off.
As Index reports, the state confiscated art works belonging to former PM Ivo Sanader and will put many of them up for public auction to be sold off. Although the former prime minister once claimed that he had works of art worth 1.5 million kuna in his collection, it’s now clear that their value is actuallty much higher. Among the paintings that will be auctioned off are five works by no less than Vlaho Bukovac.
However, the road to the public auction was arduous. Back at the end of December 2010, investigators spent a massive sixteen hours cataloging all of his works of art. Taking them out around midnight was not an easy task at all, but there were no Bukovac paintings among the seized materials back then, so a month later, the police issued a warrant for them. They were removed after twelve years.
Five paintings by that famous painter are being kept in the Museum of Contemporary Art. As Dnevnik Nova TV writes, appraisers assessed a total of twelve works of art by Ivo Sanader at a total value of more than 240,000 euros. The state is demanding slightly more than 11 million euros from ex PM Sanader. What will happen to Bukovac’s works is also being closely monitored in the painter’s birthplace (his former home) down in Konavle, in the extreme south of Dalmatia, which has been converted into an art gallery.
“Until now, we’ve witnessed a large number of auctions where various Bukovac works were sold off, including very important examples, and, unfortunately, we can’t obtain such material,” said Antonika Ruskovic Radonic, the director of the Public Institution for culture, museums and galleries in Konavle. In the opinion of many people, it’s somewhat absurd that now, when the state finally has the paintings of the most valued Croatian painter in its possession, it’s selling that material off.
“For the Bukovac house, those works would be exceptional because that represents the beginning for everyone who researches Bukovac, his life and his work. It’s the first place you come to because of its archive and the valuable materials kept here,” said Ruskovic Radonic. However, not all of them are available to the public because many of Bukovac’s works are privately owned. They can be purchased from private collectors.
Euronews claims certain Croatian MEPs have been downplaying crimes committed during Croatia’s time as an Axis country and beyond
Croatia, then the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna drzava hrvatska/NDH), was aligned with the Germans (perhaps better to say with the array of Axis states) during the second world war. The government back during those days was led by Dr. Ante Pavelic, and numerous crimes were committed in Croatia much like they were across the majority of Europe in that dark period of history. Euronews has accused Croatian MEPs of downplaying Croatian crimes committed between 1941 and 1945, and beyond it.
Recently, Croatian representatives in the European Parliament in Brussels organised events where, it seems to some, they dragged up controversial issues related to terrorism and Nazi collaborators from a certain period of Croatian history that nobody really likes to talk about.
Zeljana Zovko, representative of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), attended a seminar last week as part of a series of events of the European People’s Party group in the European Parliament, according to Euronews. According to the panel’s premise, they focused on the terrifying secret services of former communist nations, because “the totalitarian regimes of the past may no longer exist, but their secret services and networks live on,” Zovko said.
As Index reports, Zdravka Busic, a member of the Croatian National Resistance or Otpor back during the 1970s, gave a presentation at the event. Many consider Otpor to be a ”far-right organisation responsible for several terrorist attacks around the world.” Of course, things run a little deeper and are more complex than that, as with all things Croatian, but I digress.
“I’m sure that Zdravka Busic will contribute significantly to this seminar with her deep knowledge and personal experience on this issue,” continued Zovko.
Back in September 1976, Zdravka’s brother Zvonko Busic participated in the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines plane flying from New York to Chicago and planted a bomb at Grand Central Station in New York, demanding that an appeal for Croatian independence be published in a leading American newspaper. The plane was diverted to Montreal and then to Newfoundland, where 35 passengers were released. After negotiations with the American ambassador in Paris, the hijackers surrendered.
One New York policeman was killed while dismantling the bomb, and the perpetrators were convicted of air piracy. This leads some to the question of: just why did Zdravka Busic feel the need to speak about these topics in the European Parliament? The panel appealed for the opening of state archives of the former communist secret services, “so that they can be fully investigated and deal with the existing structures from the communist era and their crimes”. This is a request that has been being revisited and reopened for many years now.
Zdravka Busic and her brother were rehabilitated after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the declaration of Croatia’s independence. She was a member of the Croatian Parliament and a member of the European Parliament after Croatia joined the EU in 2013. In her presentation, Busic focused on the actions of Yugoslavia’s state security, or UDBA, which she accused of committing heinous crimes, including imprisoning, torturing and killing those deemed to be participating in “hostile activities against the state.”
“Many individuals from the young Croatian generation believed that the creation of an independent and democratic state of Croatia was of crucial importance,” Busic explained at the meeting.
Busic did not directly address – or even mention – the activities in which she, her brother and husband were convicted, although she expressed several views on the activities of Croatian emigrant communities or the diaspora, according to a recording of the panel obtained by Euronews. Why are communist crimes being talked about today, you might ask? Zdravka Busic insisted that “the biological descendants and ideological followers of communists have great power even now in the modern age” and that communist ideology left a “clear mark of contamination” on all of Croatian society. Most with any knowledge of the period wouldn’t disagree, and although the topic of the discussion might seem reasonable at first glance, Busic and other speakers failed to mention the fact that the conversation about communist crimes is still a platform for gathering the far right, ultra-nationalists and Nazi apologists who promote ideas that promote discrimination even today.
These topics are meant to stoke fears and justify their beliefs, believes Michael Colborne, a journalist and researcher at Bellingcat who has covered Croatia and the Balkans extensively.
Former HDZ Parliamentarian is going to court for allegedly threatening a journalist
The county court in Split has now confirmed the legality of the indictment against the long-time mayor of Seget Municipality and former HDZ MP, Vinko Zulim, who is being charged with threats against Slobodna Dalmacija journalist Vinko Vukovic.
The prosecution, without specifying any of the actual identities of the individuals involved, reported that the court had accepted the state attorney’s appeal against the earlier decision of the indictment panel of the Split Municipal Court against Zulim, with the explanation that the words uttered were not specified and that the factual description of the indictment didn’t represent a serious threat. It was also said that ”there was no intention [that could be taken from his words] of frightening or disturbing Vukovic.
According to the opinion of the indictment panel of the first-instance court, it’s an inappropriate and offensive form of communication, and not a serious and specific threat, as was added by the prosecutor’s office.
Zulim told the journalist that he knew who he was and where he lived, which I’m not sure could be taken in any other manner than a threatening one. The High Court, the prosecution added, in the explanation of the ruling on the merits of the indictment stated that the indictment contains everything necessary to be able to act on it, including the content of the words which the state attorney considers to be the legal features of the criminal act of threat.
At the same time, the court states that the state attorney correctly indicates in his appeal that the words spoken by the defendant should be viewed in the context of the entire event and that all the words spoken indicate the existence of well-founded suspicion of the alleged criminal act. The prosecution accuses Zulim that during a telephone conversation on January the 20th last year, when outraged by a question about his son’s employment in the Seget Municipality, he first used insults in raised tones of voice, and then made a serious threat, which caused the journalist a feeling of anxiety and fear for the safety of himself and his family.
According to the indictment, Vukovic called Zulim to ask him if an individual called ”M. Z.”, whom he states is employed by the Seget Municipality, is in actual fact his son. At that, Zulim burst into anger and told Vukovic that he knew who he was and where he lived, and that he had two little girls. He insulted him and mentioned the possibility of coming to Vukovic’s residential address. When the journalist asked what he would do if he came, Zulim told him that he would kiss him on the forehead, according to the indictment.
This particular indictment against Zulim came to the attention of the authorities last summer, and in the autumn of 2022, USKOK also came to suspect him of unjustifiably spending municipal money on the national team in both 2017 and 2018. He was accused of ordering that the municipality of Seget Donji, while he was at its head, issue purchase orders for the consumption of food and drinks from private gatherings in various catering and hospitality facilities, which he gave the green light with his signature, and although there was no basis for this, he ordered such services to be paid for by the municipality.
Based on the purchase orders issued in this way and Zulim’s verbal orders, the catering and hospitality facilities issued invoices to the municipality for the services provided. At the same time, according to USKOK, he allegedly wrote explanations for such gatherings with his own hand, claiming that members of various commissions, associations and representatives of state institutions were hosted, when in actual fact they were members of HDZ as the municipal ruling party, as well as individual municipal employees.
Ivan Rimac, a Professor of Law has stated that PM Andrej Plenkovic is ”directly encroaching upon peoples’ rights”
Ivan Rimac, a professor from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, analysed the Sortirnica and Agrokor affairs and other current topics from the sphere of justice and legislation on N1 television. Referring to the Sortirnica affair, i.e. the new action of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in which five people were arrested because of the waste sorting plant in Rijeka, Rimac said that all HDZ members probably now feel relieved because they can point the finger at someone else after a lot of fingers having been pointed at them by others.
“Plenkovic directly encroaches on the peoples’ rights,” Rimac believes. When asked if he expected the announcements of changes to the CPC to stop data leakage to be followed through, Rimac said the following:
“The solution offered by Plenkovic is a direct encroachment on peoples’ right to be informed about what state services do and how state money is spent. The introduction of such an institute, especially with the slowness of our judicial system, means a practical embargo on the publication of any information about the actions taken by government officials. It is the same as having a censorship of the press. I see nothing further than that that could go in favour of such proposals. I believe that it would be good for judicial processes to make decisions with calm heads, but the public has the right to know what goes on in this regard.”
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