ZAGREB, May 29 (Hina) - The Office for Preventing Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Thursday requested of the Zagreb County Court to initiate an investigation into Krunoslav Canjuga and Mirko Batarelo for founded suspicion
that they had committed a criminal act of giving and receiving bribes.
ZAGREB, May 29 (Hina) - The Office for Preventing Corruption and
Organised Crime (USKOK) on Thursday requested of the Zagreb County
Court to initiate an investigation into Krunoslav Canjuga and Mirko
Batarelo for founded suspicion that they had committed a criminal
act of giving and receiving bribes. #L#
Canjuga, as a former Zagreb County state prosecutor, is suspected
of having provided information to attorney Batarelo on actions and
decisions of the State Prosecution in certain cases, contrary to
all regulations.
Batarelo is accused of providing Canjuga gifts and other benefits
for information which was important to him in defending or getting
clients, USKOK reports.
Canjuga resigned to the post of county prosecutor in mid-April,
after Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic informed him about
suspicion of his illegal activities. Bajic decided to transfer
Canjuga to Zlatar, where he has been deputy county prosecutor
since. Proceedings for Canjuga's suspension have been initiated.
According to the media, police spent several months investigating
corruption in the judiciary, during which time they tapped Canjuga
and Batarelo's telephones, and recorded the two making
arrangements on lessening certain criminal charges, doctoring
files and dividing bribes.
It is suspected that this was a continuation of a criminal
investigation which in March resulted in USKOK indicting 13 people
suspected of smuggling large amounts of raw coffee. Batarelo was an
attorney for one of the defendants in the case.
(hina) lml sb