The indictment council of the Municipal Court in Koprivnica has confirmed the indictment against former mayor of Varaždin, Ivan Čehok, and former director of the company Parkovi, Miljenko Ptiček, in the Mercator affair.
They are suspected of having entered into a detrimental contract related to the disputed land exchange between Parkovi and the City of Varaždin worth 4.5 million kuna. Čehok is accused of having signed a contract as the mayor of Varaždin, knowing it was harmful to the City of Varaždin, while Ptiček is accused of encouraging him to do so.
According to the indictment, Čehok, as mayor, signed a real estate exchange contract on March 1, 2006, at the request of the director of Parkovi, whereby the City of Varaždin transferred ownership of land with a market value of around 4.5 million kuna to Parkovi, while at the same time, in return, Parkovi, as the holder of the right of use, waived its legal right to contribute to the company’s share capital and acquire ownership of another piece of land in favor of the City of Varaždin.
However, it is disputed that Parkovi provided the City of Varaždin with land in exchange that was actually supposed to belong to the City of Varaždin. Čehok is believed to have known this according to the assessment of the DORH.
The first indictment against Čehok and Ptiček was returned by the Municipal Court in Koprivnica to the competent Municipal State Attorney’s Office for further clarification of some details from the indictment. The ODO subsequently conducted a construction-financial expert assessment and refiled the indictment before the Municipal Court in Koprivnica, which has now been confirmed.
Ivan Čehok is currently in custody at the Remetinec prison in Zagreb, having been arrested on suspicion of having favored entrepreneur Miroslav Bunić together with his former deputy Zlatko Horvat. Bunić and Horvat are also in custody.
