ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - The Commercial Court in Zagreb on Thursday ruled on a temporary ban on the use of shares of Croatia's highest-circulation daily "Vecernji list", the president of the Commercial Court, Vesna Buljan, confirmed in
an interview with Hina today.
ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - The Commercial Court in Zagreb on Thursday
ruled on a temporary ban on the use of shares of Croatia's highest-
circulation daily "Vecernji list", the president of the Commercial
Court, Vesna Buljan, confirmed in an interview with Hina today.
#L#
"The purpose of this temporary measure is to prevent possible
damage which could be caused by the further possible sale of
'Vecernji list' shares," Buljan said.
This means that for the time being the daily will not be sold to the
Austrian publishing house Styria AG as was announced several weeks
ago.
Buljan said the ban on using the shares "maintains the current
situation and its purpose is not the assessment of whether the
previous purchase and sale of 'Vecernji list' shares between the
Pension Fund and Caritas Fund was lawful."
She added the ban did not mean the initiating of court proceedings
about the legal validity of the purchase and sale, adding this would
be discussed within a possible arbitration procedure.
Two years ago the Pension Fund sold the majority package of
profitable shares of 'Vecernji list' to the Caritas Fund. The
purchase and sale was carried out hastily during Christmas and New
Year holidays and the Caritas Fund, whose owners were not known, was
registered on the Virgin Islands just several days before the deal
was concluded.
These facts caused public suspicion regarding the legality of the
whole procedure because it did not seem logical that the Pension
Fund, which had always been faced with financial difficulties, was
getting rid of such a profitable asset. This led to speculations
that the transaction was carried out on behalf of the then ruling
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
In mid-April two Croatian businessmen made known that they were the
owners of the Caritas Fund, that is, of 'Vecernji list' daily.
"I have enough information to be able to say that this has been a
notorious swindle," Croatian President Stipe Mesic said the day
after the daily's owners revealed their identity.
In the archive of the President of the Republic Mesic discovered the
authorised transcript of a conversation between the late President
Franjo Tudjman and his advisor Ivic Pasalic on an operation aimed at
purchasing 'Vecernji list' for the HDZ. Pasalic denied ever having
had such a conversation and the police are conducting an
investigation into the case.
(hina) jn rml