ZAGREB, Sept 13 (Hina) - Vladimir Seks, the head of the club of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MPs, has rebutted allegations that it is him who initiated criminal proceedings against three former officials of the HDZ for the
embezzlement of 300,000 kuna from the party's foundation while they headed that endowment.
ZAGREB, Sept 13 (Hina) - Vladimir Seks, the head of the club of
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MPs, has rebutted allegations that
it is him who initiated criminal proceedings against three former
officials of the HDZ for the embezzlement of 300,000 kuna from the
party's foundation while they headed that endowment. #L#
Seks was quoted by Sunday's issue of the Vjesnik daily as saying
that the then management of the foundation called 'Zaklada
hrvatskog drzavnog zavjeta' had spent the funds secretly and
without the knowledge of the HDZ leadership in order to finance th
establishment of another two political parties, the Croatian Bloc
(HB) and the Croatian True Revival (HIP).
According to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
Zagreb police on Friday pressed charges against Ivic Pasalic, Ante
Beljo and Ivan Aralica on suspicion of embezzling 300,000 kuna
(EUR40,000) of government funds while they headed a Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) party foundation.
On Saturday, Ivica Pasalic, the HB president, said that the
chargers had been pressed against him as a result of an agreement
which the current HDZ leaders, Ivo Sanader and Vladimir Seks, had
concluded with Ivica Racan (the Premier and the Social Democratic
Party's president). Writer Ivan Aralica said on Friday night that
he knew that the charges were pressed by the HDZ itself, i.e. its
member Vladimir Seks personally.
"Neither HDZ nor I have initiated the proceedings for pressing
charges. This has been a decision by the police. The HDZ head
committee some times ago made a decision that the money in the
foundation was the State's ownership and that it should be
transferred to the state budget," Seks said adding that the State
Prosecutor's Office had lodged a civil action against the HDZ and
that the said foundation's account in the Privredna Bank Zagreb
(PBZ) had been blocked as the authorities insisted that the funds
were owned by the State and that both the principal and interest
rates be given back to the State.
"I, together with the HDZ lawyer, proposed to the State Prosecutor a
deal under which we should give back the principal but that we need
not pay the interest," Seks explained adding that out-of-court
settlement failed as th Prosecutor's Office insisted on the
repayment of the interest, too.
"We have not pressed charges against them (Pasalic, Beljo and
Aralica), but we know that they have been interrogated by the
police," Seks said adding that the foundation's governing board
spent the funds, secured through from interest rates secretly and
without the HDZ leadership's knowledge.
"I surmise that the money was indirectly used for the purpose of the
implementation of an idea of the establishment of the HIP and HB,"
Seks said.
(hina) ms