A Zagreb County Court investigating judge approved a request from the national anti-corruption office USKOK on Thursday and ordered that the former director of the Customs Administration and former treasurer of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Mladen Barisic, be placed in investigative detention for 30 days.
After an hour-long hearing, Judge Kresimir Devcic ordered detention for Barisic citing a risk of his tampering with witnesses. The judge rejected USKOK's request that he be detained because of the risk of repeating the crime of which he is suspected.
Barisic's lawyer Ante Madunic said that his client would most likely present his defence next week. He rejected media reports saying that the police had seized 2.5 million kuna during a search of Barisic's home.
Barisic is suspected of conspiracy to commit crime, illegal brokerage, and incitement to abuse of office in the Fimi Media case. He was arrested in Zagreb on Wednesday morning, after which the police searched his home and his office at the Customs Administration.
In the meantime, the government had relieved him of his duties as a state secretary at the Ministry of Finance and as director of the Customs Administration at the Ministry of Finance.
The arrest of Barisic coincided with the release from investigative detention of Darko Beuk, a former member of the managing board of the state-owned forest management company Hrvatske Sume, who is suspected of illegally awarding contracts to Fimi Media owned by Nevenka Jurak, as a result of which this advertising firm earned 2.5 million kuna.
Barisic is Jurak's longtime friend. USKOK launched an investigation against Barisic in May on suspicion of illegal brokerage for her firm, which in 2004 had only one registered employee. After that Fimi Media she started to make numerous deals with state companies, illegally earning about 16.5 million kuna, according to USKOK.
Barisic's lawyers would not comment on reports that their client was arrested because Beuk had named him and former prime minister Ivo Sanader as the chief culprits in the case.
According to unofficial sources, Barisic has also been accused by the former CEO of the HEP power company, Ivan Mravak, and the former director of the Croatian postal savings bank (HPB), Josip Protega. Both Mravak and Protega are suspected of financial wrongdoing in various cases.
USKOK also suspects that Barisic made deals with other state-owned companies.
According to media reports, public companies were advised to do business with Fimi Media at a secret meeting in the Cabinet office in April 2007. Among those attending the meeting were Barisic and Sanader.
