ZAGREB, April 25 (Hina) - About 250 foreign criminals were granted Croatian citizenship in the past decade, most on the recommendation of the Defence Ministry, but also of the Interior Ministry and the President's Office, according to
Interior Minister Sime Lucin.
ZAGREB, April 25 (Hina) - About 250 foreign criminals were granted
Croatian citizenship in the past decade, most on the recommendation
of the Defence Ministry, but also of the Interior Ministry and the
President's Office, according to Interior Minister Sime Lucin.
#L#
Foreigners were granted Croatia's citizenship certificate based on
a provision stipulating that on recommendation, the intertor
minister has the discretionary right to grant a person Croatian
citizenship even when said person fails to meet other legal
conditions.
"In nine years 6,521 people were granted citizenship that way...
Some of them have criminal records, namely a group of about 250,"
Lucin told Globus weekly in an interview which hit the news-stands
on Wednesday.
The interviewer wondered why nobody had yet been called to account
for the fact that Croatian citizenship had been granted to Semjon
Mogiljevic, an international mobster, multiple murderer James
Capau, and Stanko "Cane" Subotic, a Serbian businessman suspected
of heading an international cigarette smuggling chain.
"Stanko 'Cane' Subotic was granted Croatian citizenship in 1999 on
Ljubo Cesic-Rojs' recommendation. It was cleared by the then
interior minister. Mogiljevic was granted citizenship in 1997, on
the recommendation of the President's Office, while James Capau was
granted Croatian citizenship in 1992 on the recommendation of the
(Defence Ministry) Staff Administration," Lucin was quoted.
"The Defence Ministry gave the most recommendations for the group
with criminal records, followed by the Interior Ministry and even
the President's Office," the minister said.
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