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.
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