Marcellino and Cerhak: the victim of own obsession or…

Mario Cerhak, the owner of the exclusive restaurant Marcellino, is one of those people who would never been seen in public, not to mention that he would never been seen crying in public, if there wasn’t Ivo Sanader. And the media.

The war exile from Sarajevo has become known in public during the last few weeks, due to the ‘’records ‘’ of allegedly compromising meeting among the former PM Ivo Sanader, the member of the MOL administration Zsolt Hernandi and the former Dioki boss Robert Jezic. The State Attorney consider this meeting (footage) as a proof that Sanader received 10 million Euros bribe for facilitating to the Hungarian MOL company in the case of selling INA oil company.

If we ignore the discussion about the footage from the restaurant being a proof or not, it is more than obvious that Cerhak is the absolute loser of this entire parade.

- By repeating the statements about my criminal liability, the lawyer Slokovic exposed me, my wife, the restaurant employees and finally my guests to the media pressure and public disapproval, by imputing that I am the restaurant owner whose acts and relations toward guests fall under the criminal liability - Cerhak told to the new-reporters. He added that this situation caused him business damage.

And the emotional, so he got up from the table and cried.

But unfortunately, Jadranka Slokovic isn’t culpable for his damage since she is giving an effort to defend her client in the best possible way. Even the public wasn’t culpable for his situation. He is crooked by himself, or by believing in some fallacious people.

It is obvious that people who enter the Marcellino restaurant see the label and notification of restaurant being under the video surveillance, but no one could ever think that the owner keeps the video records for days, months and years… And then, one day he hands over the records to the state Attorney, to USKOK and the police.

It is pretty vague why the owner of such serious and exclusive restaurant as Marcelino, where a dish costs around couple of thousands HRK, where exclusive clientele arrives, would bring himself in such position by - keeping the video records? It is even stranger because, as he said, the world celebrities came to his restaurant, and he had never published those records.

But Cerhak doesn’t find this controversial. In one of his prime statements, after we published the story about the ‘’secret’’ meeting of Sanader, Hernandi and Jezic being recorded in Marcellino, Cerhak said there was nothing surprising about having the video surveillance since he has nothing to hide. He added that he hadn’t opened the restaurant so people would come to secretly play cards, to bring their mistresses or to share a secret preys. Cerhak didn’t think about giving a wrong statement. But the owner of the restaurant for exclusive guests doesn’t choose his clients, but clients choose him. If he doesn’t think that this statement could affect his guests, he is wrong.

If he only could have stopped after the mentioned statement… After tears for the damage that was caused, as he said, by Jadranka Slokovic, Cerhak continues his rhetoric lapse and starts threatening:

- If they are going to harass me some more, I will have to say it is hard to keep the knowledge about those meetings as secret to myself.

As this very statement was necessary to give back trust to his guests by talking through every detail of every Sanader’s meeting and of who knows who. Instead of turning to the person who caused him a problem indeed. And who is that person? Or people maybe?

- … The State Attorney asked for the tape and I gave them the tape after having the conversation with Bajic… We didn’t show the tape to the news-reporters and we won’t do such thing until necessary. I’m the only person who won’t give the tape to media. The proof that I didn’t reveal the tape is the fact that no one has known about this for two years - he said.

If we are to believe the words of Mario Cerhak, the media got the tape from someone from the State Attorney office. The drawing about where Sanader, Hernandi and Jezic were sitting was published by Jutarnji list. Sanader’s lawyer Goran Suic, after the information about the tape has been published said it was very significant that this very media published the drawings of the tape, since a day this story was published, the news-reporter of that certain article and the main State Attorney Mladen Bajic were seen together in public…

If there is something else in such events sequence, it’s hard to expect it will be revealed since the Sate Attorneys will never confess giving the tape to the media. As no media will reveal their information sources. And the other significant fact is that, from that day, nothing else has leaked to media regarding Sanader’s case.

And finally, the fact is that Cerhak paid the price for his, as we could say, stupidity, curiosity or some other obsession that made him keep the tape. This price could never be repaid by no media or by the State Attorney office.