Croatia's Untouchables

[Ivo Skoric]

While in Montenegro organized crime style murers are still the order 
of a day, in Croatia the units fighting organized crime seem to be 
getting upper hand: former Croatia's #2 arrested for attempt to 
extort a bribe!
ivo
ps - just like my father, Granic also likes to hold his confidential 
meetings at Zagreb's pictoresque main cemetery Mirogoj: I guess that 
must be a generational trait, feeling the closeness of the last 
days...

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Croatia: High Society Arrests 

by Drago Hedl
3 June 2004

Following the detention and release of one of Croatia’s most
prominent politicians and an equally notable businessman, questions
arise about the extent of corruption. 

ZAGREB, Croatia--A former foreign minister and a prominent 
businessman
last month ended up in police custody in the wake of corruption
allegations but have subsequently been released. Although no charges
have been filed, the affair has nonetheless caused a scandal in
Croatia. Accusations of corruption are commonplace in Croatia, but
this marks the first time that such a high-ranking official has been
detained.

Mate Granic--the foreign minister from 1993 to 1999 under independent
Croatia’ s first president, the nationalist Franjo Tudjman--was
arrested on 7 May. He was suspected of seeking a bribe for his
mediation in a financial transaction.

At the same time, Darinko Bago--Granic's brother-in-law and the
president of Zagreb’s Koncar electronics consortium--was also
arrested. During Granic's mandate at the Foreign Ministry, Bago 
served
as Croatian ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Bulgaria. 

On 10 May, an investigative judge from the County Court in Zagreb,
Kresimir Devcic, released the two, rejecting a request from USKOK--a
special body operating within the Justice Ministry set up to deal 
with
cases of organized crime--that the two men be kept in detention for a
month. Devcic also refused to launch an investigation against Granic
and Bago, arguing that the evidence presented by USKOK--including the
results of undercover police surveillance—was insufficient.

Upon his release, Granic charged that the whole affair had been 
staged
to defame him.

“I know who they are,” Granic said, referring to those figures he
accused of plotting against him, “but I'd rather not name them.”
Several hours later, he was admitted to a Zagreb hospital to undergo
an emergency angioplasty after nearly suffering a heart attack.

“I am shocked and aghast at the news [of Granic's arrest],” said
Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, the current justice minister and a close Granic
associate in the Democratic Centre (DC), at a press conference on the
day of Granic’s arrest. Skare-Ozbolt and Granic established the DC
together after leaving Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), and
she recently took over the chairmanship of the DC from Granic.
“Nevertheless, the legal system must function regardless of the
[position] of the suspect,” Skare-Ozbolt added. 

“The rule of law should function, and no one is exempt from his or
her responsibility, but since I have been, for 15 years, connected in
various ways with this man who has been present on the public and
political stage, then it is a painful situation for me as well,
regardless of what the outcome of this affair may be,” Vladimir
Seks, the speaker of the Croatian parliament and Granic's former HDZ
party colleague, told the Zagreb daily Jutarnji list the day after 
the
arrests.

ARC OF POWER

In his time as foreign minister, Granic ranked above current Croatian
Prime Minister Ivo Sanadar when the latter was the assistant foreign
minister. He had a reputation for being a moderate member of 
Tudjman's
HDZ and was reputed to be in constant conflict with the rabidly
nationalistic faction headed by the then-Defense Minister, Gojko
Susak. After Tudjman’s death in 1999, with HDZ in a clear losing
position in the run-up to elections, Granic gained the HDZ nod to run
in the presidential elections. As it turned out, Granic--having been
advised to distance himself from HDZ--ran as an unaffiliated 
candidate
in his pre-election campaign. However, he was defeated in the first
round of voting. 

Granic was the first to acknowledge the defeat of HDZ in the
parliamentary elections in 2000. He would later say that it was very
important to concede on the evening of election day because there 
were
forces within HDZ that were not ready to withdraw from their 
positions
easily. It was exactly those forces, he maintained, that induced him
to leave HDZ and found DC. Several moderate HDZ parliamentarians
joined him in the effort.

However, due to the DC’s rather vaguely defined policy and its
attempts to position itself between HDZ and the leftist coalition
headed by then-Prime Minister Ivica Racan, DC never managed to 
attract
a significant number of followers. His party was mocked as “HDZ
lite.” 

The parliamentary elections in November last year were a debacle for
Granic. His party won only one seat in parliament, and at the end of
the last year, Granic withdrew from the position of DC chairman,
leaving it to Skare-Ozbolt.

There were rumors that he might be granted an ambassadorship, given
his foreign affairs experience and his acquaintance with Sanadar, but
no appointment materialized. 

A medical doctor by profession, Granic had most recently been working
on founding his own company to provide consulting and mediation
services. His financial affairs have been the subject of much
scrutiny, and media reports have offered his financial problems as
motive for the alleged affair.

At the beginning of April, the weekly Feral Tribune published
documents showing that Granic's wife took out a 20-year mortgage in
the amount of 160,000 euros ($196,000) in 1997 for the construction 
of
a villa in Zagreb. Sanader, the current prime minister, served as
guarantor for the loan. The monthly payment necessary to service the
debt amounts to nearly 1,400 euros ($1,711) until the year 2017. The
figure represents three times the average salary in Croatia. Since 
his
departure from parliament and the DC, Granic has been unemployed as
his company has not yet started to function. 

CATCH AND RELEASE

On 17 May, USKOK countered the 10 May County Court order by lodging 
an
appeal with the Supreme Court.

“We believe that we have collected sufficient evidence to support
our reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed,” USKOK
head Zeljko Zganjer told the press on 17 May.

Two days later, Jutarnji list published the leaked contents of the
confidential police audiotapes of several of Granic's secret 
meetings.
The recordings seemed to implicate Granic in a possible corruption
case but indicated that he stopped short of completing the
transaction. 

Jutarnji list is the second largest daily in Croatia. Owned by a
Croatian businessperson and the German WAZ media empire, it has 
broken
many of Croatia’s corruption scandals, although its journalistic
standards have sometimes come into question.

The leaking of the transcripts to Jutarnji list became an affair in
itself. Given that it is illegal to disclose confidential evidence,
the case triggered condemnation from the judiciary. While he cannot
comment on the Granic and Bago case, Supreme Court President Ivica
Crnic does not rule out that the leaking of the transcripts 
represents
a form of pressure on the Supreme Court. He doesn’t think the media
always show enough responsibility in such cases. According to Crnic,
those who sue or find themselves sued often manipulate the media “
to the extent the media allows them.”

“The public needs to know as many facts as possible. Nevertheless,
confidential information should not be leaked as long as the state
institutions in charge don’t decide about them. Any other way of
conducting [judicial processes] ... would bring into question the
dignity of all judicial bodies. All those who fail to keep judicial
secrets should be thrown out ... of the state as well as judicial
institutions,” Crnic told the Rijeka-based Novi list daily.

According to reports from corruption watchdog group Transparency
International and the media reports--as well as conventional wisdom
within the country--Croatia remains a place struggling with high
levels of corruption. Even high political officials are considered
susceptible, although the number of people officially charged with
corruption is relatively small. Granic is the highest-placed former
government official to be so accused. And although he was arrested
months after his withdrawal from politics, his political allies are
still painting the arrest as a form of political reprisal. 

Adding fuel to the fire, reports in the Croatian media claim that if
the case is ultimately pursued after an appeal to the Supreme Court
and ends up in trial, witnesses for the prosecution could include the
former mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic, and Neven Mimica, a former
European integration minister in the previous Ivica Racan government
and retired chair of the Koncar supervisory board who is now an
independent parliamentarian. 

Bandic and Mimica confirmed to the press that they had heard about 
the
case of alleged bribery from Granic and Bago even before their 
arrests
but refused to speculate on the credibility of the case.

Details of the case remain sketchy. What can be deduced from a scanty
police press release published after Granic and Bago had been 
arrested
is that Vladimir Delonga--a former president of one of the 20 firms
belonging to the Koncar umbrella--wanted to sell his shares of that
firm. Since the shares do not trade on the Croatian stock market, 
they
could be traded or sold only within the Koncar holding company 
itself,
which Bago heads. Granic, the police claim, volunteered to act as a
negotiator for the transaction but wanted to sell the shares at a
price higher than the actual one and in return wanted a commission of
approximately 80,000 euros ($98,000).

Delonga, according to the police, reported the conversation as an
attempt to extort a bribe. He agreed to cooperate with police,
attending the next meeting with Granic wearing a recording device. 
The
two met at the famous Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj, where Tudjman was
buried in 1999. Interestingly, Granic in interviews long before the
arrest had mentioned Mirogoj as a place he often chose for
confidential discussions when he suspected that he was being watched
by Tudjman's secret services.

On the day in question, police say that it was raining and the two 
men
were standing under one umbrella, making the recording of their
conversation of excellent quality. Their conversation is distinct and
clearly heard, and the police say it provides sufficient evidence to
hold both Granic and Bago.

There is no legal deadline for the Supreme Court to rule on the case. 


“Therefore, the Supreme Court will be able to impartially and 
calmly
examine the case and make the final ruling then. ... I say to all
those who ‘cheer’ for one side in court cases to calm down and 
let
the courts perform their legal and constitutional duties,” Crnic
said.



Drago Hedl is an Osijek-based editor with Feral Tribune.
------- End of forwarded message -------Ivo Skoric
1773 Lexington Ave
New York NY 10029
212.369.9197
ivo at balkansnet.org
http://balkansnet.org