On Monday, the trial of Josip Čović began at the Zagreb County Court, where Uskok accuses him of having requested a bribe of 50,000 euros from a representative of a Ukrainian company that performed the overhaul of Croatian MIGs for Ivica Josipović, but the trial has been closed to the public for reasons of national security.
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The exclusion of the public at the beginning of the trial was requested by representatives of Uskok, and the proposal was also agreed upon by the defendants’ lawyers, who deny guilt throughout the proceedings.
In an indictment raised at the end of last year and confirmed in March, Uskok accuses Čović of having “requested a monetary reward” from representatives of two foreign companies before the decision on public procurement, in order to ensure a positive opinion and priority in the overhaul and procurement of additional MiG-21 aircraft as a member of the Ministry of Defense (MORH) committees, regardless of the actual technical capability of potential contractors.
“Rewritten” serial numbers
Representatives of one of the companies did not accept Čović’s request for a payment of 50,000 euros for favorable treatment, while the co-defendant representative of the other company accepted this request and promised Čović the payment of the requested amount. After negotiating and realizing the job, Čović received at least 10,000 euros from the company’s representative on two occasions during January and February 2016, Uskok announced after raising the indictment on December 30, 2016, without naming the defendants.
