ZAGREB, May 13 (Hina) - Chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic said on Thursday the transcripts of a taped conversation between former foreign minister Mate Granic, who was suspected of bribery, and businessman Velimir Delonga had not
been leaked to the media from the State Prosecutor's Office or the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK). Attorneys representing Granic and another businessman who was suspected of bribery, Darinko Bago, maintain the media received the transcripts from USKOK.
ZAGREB, May 13 (Hina) - Chief state prosecutor Mladen Bajic said on
Thursday the transcripts of a taped conversation between former
foreign minister Mate Granic, who was suspected of bribery, and
businessman Velimir Delonga had not been leaked to the media from the
State Prosecutor's Office or the Office for the Prevention of
Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK). Attorneys representing Granic
and another businessman who was suspected of bribery, Darinko Bago,
maintain the media received the transcripts from USKOK.#L#
"The matter was checked and it was established the transcripts did not
come from either the State Prosecutor's Office or USKOK," was all
Bajic told Hina.
The transcripts of the conversation between Granic and Delonga, which
the latter secretly taped in cooperation with USKOK, were published by
Jutarnji list daily today. USKOK used the tape as the main piece of
evidence to prove that Granic had helped Bago take a bribe from
Delonga in the purchase of Koncar Electrical Industries shares.
The transcripts were published a day after the Zagreb County Court
approved the decision of an investigating judge that there were no
grounds for an investigation of Granic and Bago as requested by
USKOK.
The court's president, Bozidar Rumenjak, was unavailable for comment
today to say if the court would carry out an internal check. Apart
from USKOK, the transcripts were handled by investigating judge
Kresimir Devcic, the court's three-member appeals chamber which
rejected the investigation request, and the police.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zlatko Mehun told Hina that according to
available data, the transcripts "certainly weren't leaked from the
police".
Ante Madunic, one of Bago's attorneys, maintains the transcripts were
leaked from USKOK following the rejection of the request to
investigate Bago and Granic. He said the transcripts could not have
been leaked by the attorneys as they had not had them.
Miroslav Separovic, one of Granic's attorneys, agrees. He said the
transcripts, if authentic, were irrelevant for the defence since the
court had seen them before it ruled against investigating Granic and
Bago.
"If USKOK gave the transcripts to the media to justify its failure,
then it means it doesn't honour court decisions and that it is still
acting unlawfully in an obvious attempt to further discredit Granic
and Bago," Separovic said, adding the transcripts in no way proved
that Granic and Bago had been involved in bribery.
The publication of the transcripts prompted the Croatian Party of
Rights member of the parliamentary home policy and national security
committee, Pero Kovacevic, to urge chairman Ivan Jarnjak to convene a
committee session to discuss data protection and measures which would
ensure the prosecution of such cases.
Jarnjak said the publication of the transcripts was unacceptable.
Granic has told Vecernji List daily that the published transcripts do
not contain portions of the conversation, such as Delonga's "explicit
claim" that neither Granic nor Bago asked Delonga for anything, or
Granic's claim that he is "not interested in the deal".
(Hina) ha