This January, the police pressed charges against a former CEO of the Podravka food company, Darko Marinac, former Podravka management board member Zeljko Djurdjina and Koprivnica Mayor Zvonimir Mrsic of SDP on suspicion that they had signed a harmful contract on the sale of Podravka's holiday complex in the southern Croatian coastal town of Pirovac by selling the property below its market value. Mrsic was charged with having sold the property in a 2007 tender for HRK 25.2 million, without a previous appraisal of its market value.
The Koprivnica municipal office of the Chief State Prosecutor on Tuesday reported that after an investigation into the allegations against the three men, the prosecutor concluded there were no grounds for their indictment.
Addressing the press in Zagreb on Wednesday, SDP chief Milanovic said the sale of the retreat complex was a business decision and not the matter of corruption.
Milanovic said that before Mrsic had been notified about the police's activities in this case, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) influential officials had known about the charges.
Mrsic told the news conference that having shown data from the charges in the public, the police tried to exert pressure on the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor.
The mayor of that northern Croatian town said that he first learnt from the media about the charges, and added that the charges included factual errors.