With the pronouncement of non-final verdicts for former Deputy Prime Minister of the Croatian Privatization Fund (HFP) Ivan Gotovac and entrepreneur Svjetlan Stanić, the first court proceedings arising from USKOK’s anti-corruption operation “Maestro” should be concluded tomorrow at the Zagreb County Court.
The defense requested acquittals in their closing statements last week, calling the indictment “elementary ignorance of the law” and the proceedings a mockery of the fight against corruption. The prosecution, on the other hand, claims that witness testimonies and secret recordings reviewed during the evidentiary proceedings have unequivocally established that Gotovac favored Stanić in the privatization of Dalmacijavina and the Split hotel Bellevue.
USKOK charges Stanić with having given Gotovac a pig as a bribe and paid for his trip to Monte Carlo, as well as encouraging him to abuse his position and authority to enable him to acquire shares and assets of companies from the Fund’s portfolio under the most favorable conditions. USKOK also claims that Stanić hosted Gotovac on his 23-meter yacht, offered him a loan for stock trading, and a position as his advisor when he leaves HFP.
The “Maestro” operation, a police-USKOK secret investigation into corruption in HFP, peaked in June 2007 when three vice-presidents of the Fund and several others were arrested. The court investigation concluded at the end of January, and USKOK filed the indictment in mid-February of last year. Alongside Stanić and Gotovac, whose case was subsequently separated, there are eight other defendants on the dock being tried before another court panel in a case dubbed “big maestro.” (Hina)
