ZADAR, Sept 13 (Hina) - Commenting on reports that Zagreb police have pressed charges against him and two other former officials of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for embezzling the funds of an HDZ foundation, writer Ivan Aralica
has said that the charges were pressed by the party itself, i.e. its member Vladimir Seks.
ZADAR, Sept 13 (Hina) - Commenting on reports that Zagreb police
have pressed charges against him and two other former officials of
the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for embezzling the funds of an
HDZ foundation, writer Ivan Aralica has said that the charges were
pressed by the party itself, i.e. its member Vladimir Seks. #L#
In a statement given to Hina in Zadar on Friday, Aralica said that he
accepted the post of a member of the foundation's governing board
after the January 2000 elections, after an inspection into the
foundation's business operations proved that it operated in line
with the law.
Aralica said that the foundation was financed with donations, while
the funds transferred from abroad by Hrvoje Sarinic, a close
associate of the first Croatian president and leader of the HDZ,
Franjo Tudjman, to a bank account in Croatia, were not used to
finance the foundation.
In July or August 2001, as the foundation was no longer receiving
donations, its heads decided to deposit the transferred funds for a
fixed period of time and use interest to finance the foundation's
work, Aralica said. The principal was not spent and it was to be used
for what it was initially intended - to finance the construction of
a memorial centre to Tudjman in his home town, he added.
The Zagreb police yesterday stated that charges had been pressed
against three responsible persons in an HDZ party foundation
without revealing their names. A source close to the police, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the foundation in
question was "Zaklada hrvatskog drzavnog zavjeta" and the persons
charged its three former heads -- Ivic Pasalic, Ante Beljo and Ivan
Aralica.
(hina) rml