ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic today refuted an allegation by Zagreb's daily Jutarnji list that he was pulling the plug on the investigation into a former finance minister Borislav Skegro and Croatian
Telecom management board chairman Ivica Mudrinic. The two are suspected of having abused the first phase of privatisation of the Croatian Telecom company for personal gain, and thus caused damage to the government budget. Granic announced he will request that light be shed on the case. The government's public relations office said today Granic stressed he was "exceptionally unpleasantly surprised" with the text the daily ran today headlined "Granic To Stop Probe into Skegro and Mudrinic", because "he was not acquainted with the investigation and the levelling of criminal charges". "This is the reason why Granic asked light be shed on the case," the public relations office reported. The daily, cit
ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic today
refuted an allegation by Zagreb's daily Jutarnji list that he was
pulling the plug on the investigation into a former finance
minister Borislav Skegro and Croatian Telecom management board
chairman Ivica Mudrinic. The two are suspected of having abused the
first phase of privatisation of the Croatian Telecom company for
personal gain, and thus caused damage to the government budget.
Granic announced he will request that light be shed on the case.
The government's public relations office said today Granic
stressed he was "exceptionally unpleasantly surprised" with the
text the daily ran today headlined "Granic To Stop Probe into Skegro
and Mudrinic", because "he was not acquainted with the
investigation and the levelling of criminal charges".
"This is the reason why Granic asked light be shed on the case," the
public relations office reported.
The daily, citing "reliable sources", wrote that only a day after
police filed charges against Skegro and Mudrinic, Goran Granic
demanded the procedure be ceased. Jutarnji presented the
supposition that the government was surprised with the police act,
because the criminal charges could cause great harm to the Croatian
telecommunications company, considering the fact negotiations n
merging with Deutsche Telecom are underway.
Police filed criminal charges against Borislav Skegro and Ivica
Mudrinic, on suspicion that they caused 215 million kuna damage to
the government budget through abuse in the first phase of the
company's privatisation process.
The state prosecutor reports the charges against former ministers
Skegro and Ivan Pavlovic, as well as Mudrinic and three other
persons suspected of illegal acts during the privatisation, are
being processed.
(hina) lml