The 35-year-old man in question, K.S., acquired Croatian citizenship because his mother is Croatian, Mehun told Hina, adding K.S. was born in Germany and was a resident of Frankfurt.
K.S. admitted to German police, who arrested him on August 17, that he was responsible for the bomb hoaxes, regretted what he did and said he wanted to play a joke, Mehun said, adding K.S. was still being investigated even though he was released from custody.
Mehun reiterated that information collected to date and the arrested man's statement ruled out any political motivation behind the hoaxes which might link them to terror threats made to European countries.
Mehun underlined that very good cooperation was achieved in this case with other countries' police forces and Interpol, notably with the German police. He added that only a little over 24 hours passed between the last tip-off and the moment the culprit was arrested, which Mehun said testified to the excellent coordination of Croatia's security system.
A Croatia Airlines plane flying from Zagreb to Frankfurt was tipped off twice on Sunday about planted bombs, but inspections established that both threats were hoaxes. Another tip-off was received on Monday morning but it too proved to be false.