Kitarovic Sacked Gaspar and His Pregnant Wife

Minister Grabar-Kitarovic tried to blackmail the Gaspars to drop charges, but when that did not work, she sacked them, they claim.

Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic sacked young diplomat Mark Gaspar and his wife Sandra even though she knew Sandra Gaspar was pregnant.

Threats with dismissals

'It was nothing but a blackmail by the Minister. On 22 January we informed her that Sandra was pregnant and she immediately started to threaten with dismissals if we do not drop charges against her and the Ministry’, Gaspar said for Javno.

By way of reminding, Gaspar pressed charges against the Ministry for harassment, while he sued the Minister and the state secretary Zeljko Kupresak for slander, in a television show Kontraplan by Dubravko Merlic, because they tried to bring into the discredit the young diplomat and question if his post graduate education was real. The Gaspars paid for revealing the narco incident in Croatian Embassy in Los Angeles.

The settlement which failed

'After we pressed charges, we received an invitation from the Ministry to come there and reach an agreement, which we did, but we did not manage to agree on all the points of the settlement. I have a document which was put together by my lawyer, and in which it is expressly said that everything is 'consistent with the agreement’, Gaspar continues.

However, when the time came to sign the agreement, it suddenly became nonvalid. Instead of commencing their work in the US as diplomats, with remuneration of 400 kuna for what they had suffered and payment of lawyer's fee, Gaspars were dismissed; the Ministry completely ignored the fact that Sandra Gaspar was pregnant.

This is not my country

‘It is their country, neither mine, nor of my wife, or my child. We did everything according to the law, while minister's idea of law is quite another matter; she has a rather loose interpretation of the law. I have never stolen anything, neither am I a drug pusher, nor a drug addict. I am 29, and have landed in a situation where I have to (find means to) feed myself, my wife and a child. I do not need this fuss at all', evidently shaken and disappointed Marko Gaspar told us