INVESTIGATION OF GOVERNMENT OFFICE HEAD REQUESTED

ZAGREB, Aug 19 (Hina) - The Office of the Split County Prosecutor on Tuesday filed a request for investigation with the county court against the head of the Government Office for Drug Prevention, Ante Barbir, the head of the Service for the Prevention of Drug Addiction in the city of Split, Vedran Mardesic, and the president of the "Help" association, Mario Puljiz. #L# The three men are accused of the illegal use of funds allocated by the government office and the Split city government to humanitarian organisations, including the Help association, for fighting drug abuse, the Office of the County Prosecutor said in a statement. The office complained against the decision by the investigating judge to turn down its request to keep the three in custody, and reiterated its request for their detention. Barbir, Mardesic and Puljiz were arrested Monday. After hearing them, the investigating judge ruled there were no grounds for keeping them in custody and released them on their own recognisance the same night. Barbir is accused of remitting 350,000 kuna (approx. EUR46,000) into Help's account for a 25,000 kuna commission. Puljiz allegedly paid 15,000 kuna into Barbir's account and gave him the remaining 10,000 kuna personally. Puljiz is accused of taking 120,000 kuna (approx. EUR16,000) from the Help account without any justification and not returning the money. Mardesic is suspected of making payments to Help conditional on a 30 percent commission. The organisation's refusal to do so resulted in the cessation of payments from June 1999 until October 2000, whereby it incurred a loss of 110,000 kuna. (hina) lml