Wanted Notice Issued for Miroslav Kutle

The County Court in Dubrovnik has issued a wanted notice for Miroslav Kutle, who is accused of conversion crime, specifically abuse of position and authority, as he allegedly encouraged others to take out loans for his company Diona, for which the guarantor was Dubrovacka Bank.

According to the spokesperson for the County Court, Marija Donatović-Dabelić, the wanted notice was issued on September 12 after the criminal pre-trial council of the County Court in Dubrovnik ordered investigative detention for Kutle.

The company Diona, of which Kutle was the owner, is linked to a number of loans guaranteed by the then Dubrovacka Bank, and after the bank collapsed, the debts were taken over by the State Agency for the Rehabilitation of Banks, which uncovered numerous irregularities.

The wanted notice from the Dubrovnik court pertains to conversion crime, which, according to the latest amendments to the Croatian Constitution, is not subject to statute of limitations.

Kutle has been charged since 2000 in several similar cases, and in 2010 he was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for abuses in the “City Cellar” case. After that verdict became final, it was revealed that Kutle was in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he also holds citizenship. When Croatia sent the verdict for the “City Cellar” to Bosnia and Herzegovina, his defense requested a retrial in September 2011, claiming that he was convicted in a “fabricated procedure.”

Ultimately, the court in Sarajevo rejected the request of the Croatian Ministry of Justice for the enforcement of the verdict against Kutle in April of this year, reasoning that the criminal acts he is charged with do not have an equivalent in the criminal law that was in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of their commission. However, the Croatian State Attorney’s Office reported on the same day that Croatia, as the sentencing state, “retains the right to enforce the said verdict.”