"Recent reports in some Croatian media that the U.S. Government paid a reward for information leading to the arrest of Ante Gotovina are incorrect," the Department of State Office of War Crimes Issues said in a statement.
"The U.S. Government has not paid any such reward," read the statement Hina received from the US Embassy Zagreb.
"At this time, the Department of State has not received any nominations requesting that the Secretary of State authorise a reward payment," the statement said.
The story that part of a reward was paid to the person who revealed the whereabouts of the runaway Croatian general accused of war crimes was published by Globus weekly on Monday, citing diplomatic circles.
Editor-in-chief Igor Alborghetti, one of the authors of the feature, told Hina today he was puzzled by the fact that the US statement came four days after the Department of State declined to either confirm or deny the information about the reward when directly asked about it.
According to Globus, the person who revealed Gotovina's whereabouts was paid up to five million US dollars, the amount the Department of State had been offering prior to the arrest.
Gotovina was arrested by Spanish police on the Canary Islands a year ago. He was transferred to Madrid and then to The Hague, where he is in the detention unit awaiting trial for war crimes committed in 1995.