Investigating judge Boris Ivancic decided to keep the suspects in custody, after the Office for Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK) filed a request for an investigation at 0100 hours Tuesday and suggested that the suspects remain in custody.
The court is expected to interview the suspects by 2400 hours Wednesday in connection with the allegations stated in the request for an investigation. USKOK accused the suspects of taking one million euros in bribes, Devcic said. He added he expected the investigating judge to interview te suspects tomorrow after which the court would decide whether to launch an investigation and
set detention.
Josip Matanovic, Robert Pesa, Ivan Gotovac, Igor Petlevski, Asja Piplovic and Mladen Jandricek are currently in custody,
Along with the six arrested Croatian Privatisation Fund official, USKOK also suspects Juraj Parazajder who was not questioned yesterday because he felt sick and is in the hospital, and Svjetlan Stanic whom the court said was at large.
Spokesman Devcic said one of the possibilities was for the judge to interrogate Parazajder in hospital, adding however, that this would depend on the suspect's condition.
After the court said yesterday that Stanic was at large, he issued a public statement stressing that he learnt about his alleged involvement in the Privatisation Fund scandal from the media and that he was shocked to hear that he was at large, stressing that police had not been looking for him. He also stressed he had contacted the police at his own initiative.
Devcic declined to comment on this, stressing this was the job for the police