The office issued a press release on Wednesday saying that during his talks with dignitaries of the Serb Orthodox Church in Zagreb, Mayor Milan Bandic promised that the city government would take note of the request by the Serb Orthodox Church for the city not to exercise its right to pre-emptive buying and to act within its powers in accordance with the law on the protection of cultural monuments and heritage.
The City of Zagreb had been given the pre-emptive purchase rights from the "Kinematografi" company and in March 2006, the city government decided to waive this right, the press release reads.
The city government believes that the Serb Orthodox Church was equated with all other legal and physical entities in the procedure for the compensation of the confiscated property and in the rights to the compensation for or the restitution of the confiscated property.
The statement was issued amid heated discussions about plans for the reconstruction of Cvjetni Trg Square in downtown Zagreb where the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is located near the building that houses the cinema that was nationalised by the communist authorities in 1949.
In June 2006, Orthodox Church dignitaries urged the Croatian Government to stop what they called the unjust sale of the Zagreb Cinema after the Kinematografi company sold it to the "Immo Worldwide" company and businessman Tomo Horvatincic.
The church representatives reported that in May they learnt from the media that the Kinematografi had sold it to "Immo Worldwide".
Subsequently the church filed a lawsuit with the Zagreb Municipal Court against Immo Worldwide and Horvatincic over the property rights.
On 10 January 2007, representatives of the Serb Orthodox Church in Zagreb said that Horvatincic was deluding the public when saying that the church lost the suit, and added that proceedings for the compensation of the nationalised property were still under way.
After that Mayor Bandic sent a strongly-worded letter to the head of the Serb Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Jovan, complaining to him about the behaviour of the church dignitaries in Zagreb over the issue of the Zagreb Cinema.
Jovan responded by saying that in the entire case the legal order was being undermined as the Serb Orthodox Church was still engaged in the Zagreb Cinema lawsuit.
Media reports say that Horvatincic plans to demolish the existing buildings and build a block of modern buildings in Cvjetni Trg Square and that this investment will cost about 100 million euros.
However, his plans have been met with strong disapproval by some Croatian architects, actors, and many local civil society organisations.