Without MP Tomislav Saucha’s support, the government would be just one vote in parliament from collapse.
The State Attorney’s Office (DORH) has submitted a new indictment against Tomislav Saucha, former head of Prime Minister Zoran Milanović’s office and the current MP who almost single-handedly keeps the ruling majority from collapsing, reports Index.hr on July 6, 2018.
According to a statement issued by DORH, graphologists have again confirmed that signatures found on travel documents were not forged and that Saucha himself signed the fake travel documents which enabled him to take hundreds of thousands of kuna from the state budget. The indictment was also filed against Sandra Zeljko, who used to work as a secretary in the prime minister’s office.
“The indictment which the Office for Suppressing Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) filed in this case on 8 December 2017 was returned by the Indictment Panel of the Zagreb County Court in order for new graphology expert study to be performed. The new examination, jointly conducted by two graphology experts, confirmed the conclusion of the previously conducted study. Therefore, USKOK has filed a new indictment charging the same defendants with the same criminal offenses as in the indictment previously filed,” announced DORH.
Saucha is charged with submitting fake travel documents while he served as the head of the office of then Prime Minister Zoran Milanović (SDP). He and his then secretary Sandra Zeljko allegedly unlawfully gained 580,000 kuna. Saucha allegedly shared the fictitious travel allowances with Zeljko. She is also charged that, after Saucha left the post in early 2016, she continued to take out the money. According to USKOK, from March 2016 to February 2017, she falsified signatures of Saucha’s successors Neven Zelić and Davor Božinović and took additional 350,000 kuna.
Saucha shocked his then party colleagues from SDP when in 2017 he suddenly switched sides and decided to support HDZ’s government in parliament. At a vote on the motion of no-confidence against Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, Saucha provided the key vote against the motion, which directly prevented the collapse of the government, raising suspicions that he switched sides in order to improve his position in the criminal investigation and possible trial.
Saucha has denied any wrongdoing.
Translated from Index.hr.
