At the start of their trial before the Zagreb County Court on Friday, former defence minister Berislav Roncevic and his aide Ivo Bacic pleaded not guilty to all charges in an indictment the Croatian national anti-corruption investigative agency (USKOK) issued against them for embezzlement of more than HRK 10 million and abuse of office in the purchase of military trucks in 2004.
Roncevic resolutely refuted charges before the court's panel of judges,presided by Judge Jasna Smiljanic.
Ivo Bacic, who was an assistant defence minister at the time relevant to theindictment, also dismissed the charges.
Roncevic and Bacic are indicted by USKOK for abusing office and embezzlingmore than HRK 10.2 million in state money. The indictment charges them withbuying, in 2004, 39 military trucks for the Defence Ministry from theEurokamion company for HRK 34.4 million, 10.2 million more than the lowestprice offered by the MAN Importer company from Zagreb.
The two defendants said that they would not present their defence argumentsat the start of the trial but that they would do it at the end of theproceedings.
Since the scandal broke over the trucks, Roncevic has insisted on hisinnocence saying that although MAN's offer was cheaper, its trucks did notsatisfy technical requirements specified in the tender documentation. Thebearing capacity of those trucks was below 5 tonnes which was why they were notappropriate for the Croatian army, he said.
Roncevic and his defence team are dissatisfied with the way theinvestigation into him has been conducted, claiming that USKOK has knowinglyignored documents and facts which challenged the indictment. They also insistthat Roncevic is a victim of a politically-motivated process.
On the other hand, USKOK maintains that MAN trucks met the tender conditionsand that the two former high state officials embezzled more than HRK 10.2 millionin state funds by buying the more expensive Iveco trucks from Eurokamion. USKOKhas collected 390 documents and testimonies in this case.
