A Zagreb County Court investigating judge on Monday evening decided to release from detention the owner of the Fimi Media marketing agency, Nevenka Jurak, and the former treasurer of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party and head of the Customs Administration, Mladen Barisic, both suspects in the Fimi Media corruption case, the Zagreb County Court said on its website.
The suspects were released from investigative custody at the proposal of the anti-corruption agency USKOK after the suspects presented their defence and pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
Since the two pleaded guilty, there is no more risk of their tampering with witnesses and repeating the crime of which they are suspected.
Jurak has been in custody since August and Barisic since late September. They are suspected of illegal transactions with state-owned companies and syphoning off their money through Fimi Media.
USKOK's proposal for their release coincided with this morning's arrest of the head of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Vinko Mladineo, on suspicion of involvement in the Fimi Media case.
The recently expanded investigation into the Fimi Media marketing company has revealed that the amount of money of which public companies and ministries were defrauded in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Croatia exceeds HRK 80 million. Thirteen people are suspected of siphoning the money via Fimi Media, according to sources close to the investigation.
Josip Sapunar, Zlatko Korpar, Mario Crnjak and Jurica Prskalo were placed in custody last Thursday on the suspicion that they defrauded the HAC highway operator of HRK 26 million.
