"During the operation a flat in Velika Gorica was raided and the owner is being interrogated by the police," spokesman for the Interior Ministry Zlatko Mehun said. He declined to reveal the identity of the arrested person, but an unnamed source close to the police said the arrested man was Zeljko Matozan.
Mehun said that the Zadar police arrested Zeljko Dilber and Ante Zoni Maksan, whose houses, cars and offices were searched on Thursday morning. The third suspect, Zdenko Rincic, whose house was also raided yesterday, is still undergoing an interrogation and has not yet been arrested, Mehun said.
The police are in contact with the Prosecutor's Office and will decide on further steps by the end of the day, Mehun said. He added there was founded suspicion that Dilber and Maksan committed the crime of "aiding and abetting a felon" but declined to say what kind of evidence the police had against the two men.
The two men are fellow-soldiers and friends of General Gotovina, whom the UN war crimes tribunal indicted for war crimes against Serb civilians during Operation Storm.
Dilber and Maksan are two of the five Croatian citizens banned from entering the EU due to suspicion of aiding and abetting war crimes indictees. The other three are a former secretary of the Croatian President's Office, Zeljko Bagic, former MP Ljubo Cesic Rojs and businessman Hrvoje Petrac, who is at large.