PHOTO: Croatia Starts Anti-Corruption Trial

The court process in the Gruntovec case was scheduled for 9 a.m. but the judge postponed the hearing for 11.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Only three days after the verdict in the high-profile “Maestro” case at Zagreb County court, another big anti-corruption trial started, called “Gruntovec”. Charges have been raised against 28 persons, including citizens, four officers and two clerks of the Zagreb Municipality court`s Land Registry Office, one State Attorney`s Office official and two attorneys.

The Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) charged Zagreb and Zapresic land registry officials of requesting and accepting graft for solving and entering registry matters, contrary to the rules, forging provisions, issuing out land registry certificates, enabling insight and provide information from the records and photo copied them.

Although the hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m., judge Ivan Turudic, famous for the verdict to Hrvoje Petrac, postponed the process for 11 hours, because one of the defendants was late. The process finally started and the defendants pleaded before the Court Council.

According to the indictment, apart from fees for their services, they were rewarded by having private accounts settled, hiring family members, having summer vacations, loans and other gifts, as well as administrative services like having travel documents issued out expressly, loans, organising medical examinations and procuring informatical equipment without having to pay for VAT.

The defendants were suspected of these crimes in the period from June until December 2007 in Zagreb and Zapresic. For these irregularities, they accepted graft in the amount which ranged from several hundred to several thousand kuna or euros.

Take a look at the attached photo gallery: Gruntovec Anti-Corruption Trial Starts.

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