Vili Beroš is the second in three governments of Andrej Plenković to be arrested while in ministerial office, the fourth to experience investigative detention, and if an indictment is raised, he will be the ninth against whom court proceedings are being conducted. Additionally, six other ministers had to leave due to suspicions of corrupt activities. Along with Beroš, doctors Krešimir Rotim (KB Sestre milosrdnice) and Goran Roić (director of Klaićeva) were arrested, as well as supplier Saša Pozder. Also suspected are the notorious figure from the black chronicle Hrvoje Petrač and his sons Novica and Nikola, who were abroad last week. They are suspected of overpaying for the procurement of dual microscopes for neurosurgery and giving or receiving bribes. Novica Petrač has since surrendered, while Rotim was released to defend himself at liberty after giving a statement. The arrests were carried out by Uskok, although the ‘competing’ Office of the European Public Prosecutor was also conducting an investigation, apparently longer and more extensive, with more incriminations and suspects. Both wanted to continue the investigation, but the main state attorney Ivica Turudić arbitrated, predictably – for the ‘more controllable’ Uskok option.
For the Minister of Health, a joke immediately started circulating on social media that he would fall even earlier, but the waiting lists are long. So, how are the ministers doing with their judicial waiting lists, or what phase are the proceedings against them in?
Between the Barn on Brač and Software
Former Minister of Administration and political secretary of HDZ Lovro Kuščević left due to allegations of land malfeasance while he was the mayor of the Municipality of Nerežišća on Brač. Two months after his resignation, along with five co-defendants, including his (ex) wife and brother-in-law, he was charged with abuse of position and authority, receiving and giving bribes, obstructing evidence, and causing bankruptcy. The indictment states that Kuščević, together with his wife, obtained significant material benefits by acquiring agricultural land and converting it into building land, which was then sold at a multiple higher price, and instead of a 77 square meter barn for raising poultry and rabbits, he built a house. He attempted to influence a witness not to tell the truth during questioning by promising to ‘repay him and his family’ if he testified in his favor, according to Uskok’s indictment. At the first hearing in March 2023, all defendants pleaded not guilty. The trial continued with the examination of eighty witnesses.
Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds Gabrijela Žalac resigned in 2019 after hitting a child while driving without a valid driver’s license. She was arrested at the request of the Office of the European Public Prosecutor (EPPO) in November 2021 due to the ‘Software’ affair. She is charged with abuse of position and authority, trading in influence, and receiving bribes. The charges relate to the procurement of software for the Ministry and allegedly favoring certain companies. She spent almost two months in investigative detention before being released to defend herself at liberty. In court, she contested the legality of the evidence, claiming that the messages exchanged with Josip Rimac (now Pleslić) were illegally obtained and sought their exclusion from the case, but the Prosecutorial Council of the County Court in Zagreb decided in July 2024 that the messages were legally obtained evidence, which was confirmed by the High Criminal Court after the defense’s appeal. Along with Žalac, the director of the Central Agency for Financing and Contracting of EU Programs and Projects (SAFU) Tomislav Petric and the owners of the companies involved in the software procurement are also charged.
From Wind Farms to Wineries
With then-State Secretary Josip Rimac (now Pleslić), twelve other individuals were arrested, including the president of the HERA Management Board Tomislav Jureković, the head of the Cabinet of the Minister of Agriculture Ružica Njavro, and the assistant minister of economy Ana Mandac. Rimac (Pleslić) is accused of illegally pressuring state bodies to favor the owner of the Krš – Pađene wind farm Milenko Bašić and arranged HBOR financing of 130 million euros with former minister Gabrijela Žalac. The indictment has not yet been confirmed due to defense appeals regarding the monitoring of the former state attorney’s phone communications during which the messages, i.e., the main evidence, were collected.
Tomislav Tolušić left in 2019 from the position of Minister of Agriculture due to irregularities in his asset declaration. He was arrested three years later on suspicion of subsidy fraud with EU funds in the construction of a winery and planting vineyards, which he has been engaged in since leaving politics. He spent a month in investigative detention. He is charged with falsely stating in one tender that the project would be co-financed by a bank loan, although he did not meet the conditions, and replaced the loan with a 135,000 euro loan whose origin cannot be determined, yet he was paid 396,500 euros from the so-called wine envelope. For another tender, he did not meet two conditions: economic size and parcels without vineyards. He circumvented the second condition by uprooting old vines, which co-defendant Željko Ferenc, a senior advisor in the Virovitica regional office of the Ministry of Agriculture, accepted, but the Agency for Payments in Agriculture did not. The procedure is in the phase of reviewing the indictment. The Prosecutorial Council of the County Court in Zagreb returned the indictment to EPPO in September for revision and clarification. EPPO has three months to correct it and resubmit it to the court.
By Grandfather and Uncles
Minister of Construction Darko Horvat was the first Croatian politician to be arrested while in ministerial office, in February 2022, in the ‘By Grandfather and Uncles’ affair due to abuse of position and authority. He spent ten days in investigative detention. According to the investigation order, he approved illegal payments of subsidies to companies that did not meet the conditions. Uskok suspects that as Minister of Economy in a previous mandate, in 2018, together with his then assistant, the aforementioned Ana Mandac, at the urging of four co-defendants, Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević, Tolušić, and two state secretaries, he illegally awarded 2.6 million kuna in non-repayable funds to economic entities for which he and the other suspects were personally interested. In the meantime, the procedure has been separated as three have pleaded guilty: Mandac (sentenced to 11 months of community service), former director of the Office for Areas of Special State Concern in MRRFEU Katica Mišković (nine months conditional imprisonment), and former state secretary Velimir Žunec (ten months conditional imprisonment). The indictment also includes former Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Josip Aladrović and the county mayor, former HDZ member Damir Juzbašić. The indictment charges Juzbašić with having asked Aladrović, who was then at the head of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, to favor employment in HZMO through Mandac, which Aladrović did by providing the candidate with the tasks that would be set during the testing. Milošević and Juzbašić were the first members of the Government to perform their duties for some time while under investigation. After all defense appeals were ultimately rejected, the Prosecutorial Council of the Zagreb County Court is expected to schedule a new session where the confirmation of the indictment is anticipated.
