On the other hand, when asked about his expectations of the Croatian judiciary in this case, Finnish prosecutor Jukka Rappe told Hina that "it is a task for Croatian authorities to investigate and prosecute offences committed in Croatia."
USKOK stated on its website on Tuesday that the joint investigation team of Finland, Austria and Croatia was established in 2010 to probe suspicions surrounding the delivery of Patria armoured vehicles.
Croatia has closely cooperated with the competent agencies in Finland and Austria and conducted inquiries during which the whole documentation on the procedure for the provision of armoured vehicles for the Croatian Army was collected. In addition, necessary data from the Tax Administration and the Money Laundering Prevention Office as well as other data have been obtained with the aim of establishing facts, USKOK stated.
The Croatian prosecuting authorities questioned all Croatian citizens involved in the delivery of the armoured vehicles, and Croatia made it possible for the Austrian and Finnish agencies to do the same. Thus Finnish investigators participated in the questioning of persons they considered to be of interest. Accordingly, Croatian and Finnish investigators participated in the questioning of certain persons in Austria, USKOK added.
The collected material was forwarded to the Finnish and Austrian investigators, who in turn forwarded their findings to Croatia.
During this procedure no data or evidence has been collected that give rise to reasonable suspicion that state officials or other office-holders in Croatia solicited or received bribes, USKOK stressed.
In his response to Hina, the Finnish prosecutor Rappe also recalled that "the pre-trial investigation of the Patria Croatia case was carried out by a joint investigation team (JIT) of Finnish, Austrian and Croatian authorities."
"The trial of Finnish Patria Croatia case was based on this material. However, in JIT-investigation, all parties of the team have direct access to material collected by other parties of the team. Accordingly, the Finnish file includes documents collected by Croatian Police - e.g. examination records etc. Respectively, the Croatian Police could utilize material collected by the Finnish party."
"As far as the actions of the Croatian party of the JIT are concerned, you should ask the Croatian investigation authority USKOK, where the Croatian members of the JIT came from. I do not have any authority to speak on behalf of them," the Finnish prosecutor told Hina.
He noted that "in the Finnish Patria Croatia case two Finnish representatives of Patria company were sentenced for aggravated giving of bribes, because they were found guilty for promising bribes to Mr. Bartol Jerkovic, CEO of Croatian DDSV company. The charges for promising bribes also to (Croatian) president (Stjepan) Mesic were dismissed because of lack of sufficient evidence."
The former Croatian president told the national broadcaster (HRT) on Tuesday that he did not know who had taken money from Patria. He again dismissed any connection with this scandal, and insisted on his innocence.
The Djuro Djakovic Group said in a statement on Tuesday that there was no evidence whatsoever that the executive of the group's Special Vehicles company, Bartol Jerkovic, had received bribes, and that according to its information, he was not under any investigation by Croatian or Finnish authorities and that there was therefore no reason not to extend his term in office.
"The Djuro Djakovic Group is in no way related to the trial in Finland that resulted in a non-final verdict for a bribe promise. As far as we know, the verdict mentions Mr Bartol Jerkovic as the person whom the convicted persons promised a bribe. However, according to the Finnish prosecutor in charge of the case, there is not a single piece of evidence in this case to show that Mr Jerkovic received bribes," the company statement said.
Djuro Djakovic had signed a contract to manufacture armoured personnel carriers (APC) for the Croatian army using the technology of the Finnish defence company Patria. In the meantime, the contract was expanded to include a possible sale of APCs to third markets.
The District Court in Haemeenlinna, Finland, on Monday convicted two executives of the Patria defence company for bribery during the sale of armoured vehicles to Croatia in 2007. The CEO of Patria Vehicles, Heikki Hulkkonen, and Patria's representative for Croatia, Reijo Nittynen, were sentenced to a year and eight months conditional imprisonment and a fine of 297,000 euro each, while sales executive Tuomas Korpi was acquitted. The trial chamber ruled unanimously. The verdict is not final.