The defense claims that DORH has no evidence to corroborate the indictment and that Todorić has no access to cash to defend himself owing to his now frozen accounts.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sasa Paparella writes on the 11th of April, 2018, and as we reported yesterday, a long awaited hearing was held on Tuesday in the British capital before the Westminster Magistrates Court on the topic of the disgraced Ivica Todorić’s possible extradition to the Republic of Croatia, whose justice is being sought owing to the messy Agrokor case that has encompassed Croatia since around this time last year, when it first came to light.
As the first witness, Todorić’s lawyer, Rosemary Davidson, summoned economic expert Will Bartlett, who spoke about Agrokor’s intricate association with politics, stating that the former subject of political suspicion, and still current Finance Minister, Zdravko Marić, was a senior official within the gigantic, burdened company.
Todorić’s defense seeks to prove that the state attorney’s office does not yet have enough solid evidence to validate its indictment, and that the former Agrokor boss could end up waiting needlessly in custody for up to three and a half years should Britain indeed choose to extradite him, and if such a case were to occur, he could not pay for the defense of his freedom because his assets have been frozen by the Croatian state.
Todorić’s other lawyer, Jadranka Sloković, stated that “no money had been found on Todorić’s accounts”, to which attorney Clare Montgomery, representing Croatia, responded that Todorić has taken the money from the company.
“He borrowed bigger and bigger amounts from Agrokor, and he didn’t return it, that’s not fair,” Montgomery said. With her questioning, the lawyer working in Croatia’s defence continued to attempt to prove that the former Agrokor majority owner was in fac entirely responsible for the collapse of Agrokor, and that politics bears no responsibility in the matter, a stance many in Croatia who have studied the situation since the beginning would disagree with.
Montgomery pointed out that Todorić must be tried before the indictment is confirmed, to which Sloković responded that her client had already offered to testify on a video or to be personally questioned right there in London.
