The president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party's parliamentary group, Andrija Hebrang, told reporters in parliament on Wednesday that the owner of the Dioki company, Robert Jezic, who is currently in police custody, did not make donations to his campaign in the last presidential election.
"He did not pay a dime to my presidential campaign," Hebrang said, stressing that maybe Jezic paid money to the party after the election.
Hebrang stressed that Jezic had financed incumbent President Ivo Josipovic's presidential campaign and that he had asked former HDZ leader Ivo Sanader if Jezic was a member of the HDZ and if so, how it was possible for him to finance the campaign of his rival.
"I asked Sanader if he was going to sack him from the party now, to which he replied that he would not, but that he would persuade him to give us money us well," Hebrang said, adding that he did not know what happened after that or if Jezic had made any payments to the HDZ account.
Asked if he would follow Josipovic's example and pay the money back should an ongoing investigation show that Jezic was guilty of financial wrongdoings, Hebrang said it first needed to be established if Jezic had made the donation.
"If he made a donation, I cannot give the money back, the party will. I would be the first to insist that the money is paid back in case Jezic is guilty of embezzlement charges. But I repeat, the question remains whether he made a donation or not," Hebrang said.
