Split entrepreneur Srecko Jurisic has admitted to all the charges by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) that, together with MP Ivan Drmic, Osijek entrepreneur Drago Tadic and two other accused, he tried to bribe Supreme Court judges into changing a conviction against politician Branimir Glavas for the killing and torture of Serb civilians in Osijek during wartime.
At the beginning of Monday's session of a Zagreb County Court panel of judges that met to decide whether to uphold or throw out the USKOK indictment, Jurisic and his lawyer, without the knowledge of the other defence attorneys, informed the court that they had reached a plea bargain with the prosecution and admitted to all the charges.
The court confirmed the two-year suspended prison term with five years' probation agreed with Jurisic, who has to return to the state the EUR 70,000 which USKOK contends he received for the bribe from Drmic and Sanja Marketic, former editor-in-chief of Glas Slavonije daily.
Judge Renata Milicevic adjourned for October 13 the meeting at which the panel of judges will decide on the indictment for the other accused.
The attorneys representing the other accused found it contentious that in his plea bargain Jurisic only said that he was admitting to all of USKOK's charges without giving a statement on the alleged crimes. They said this type of confession was unlawful and that the Supreme and Constitutional Courts had dismissed it in a number of cases.
The defence claims that USKOK had no evidence that this was a case of illegal mediation, as the indictment contends that the accused were only looking for a connection at the Supreme Court who would help so the conviction against Glavas was overturned.
"In this case the defendants did not have a concrete person who could influence the verdict, so it is a case of preliminary work which is punishable only in case of the gravest crimes such as terrorism," said attorney Jadranka Slokovic.
However, USKOK deputy chief Tonci Petkovic said the plea bargain could have a big influence on establishing the culpability of the other accused, as it could serve as evidence.
Apart from Jurisic, Drmic, Tadic and Marketic, the indictment for conspiracy and illegal mediation which USKOK filed in early July also accuses Tadic's wife Bozica Tadic-Cavar.
Tadic is charged with linking the other accused in June and July 2010, when the Supreme Court was deciding on an appeal against a sentence convicting Glavas and others for war crimes, in order to find people who could be paid to influence judges or bribe them to hand down a ruling in Glavas's favour.
The indictment contends that Marketic and Drmic were to collect EUR 700,000 and that Tadic-Cavar coordinated their actions. Tadic and Jurisic contacted a number of people, asking how the case was proceeding.
After Marketic and Drmic each collected EUR 35,000, Jurisic took the money to give to a person who could exert influence on the adoption of a ruling in Glavas's favour, but he did not hand over the money, as Marketic and Drmic had notified the other accused that they were dropping out of the scheme.
To avoid being prosecuted, Marketic and Drmic filed a criminal complaint with the Osijek-Baranja County Police against an unidentified perpetrator for fraud. Even though they had given the 70,000 euros to Jurisic, they reported handing over the money to an unidentified person.
Because of that, Marketic and Drmic were indicted for falsely reporting a crime as well as for conspiracy and incitement to illegal mediation.
Drmic has been stripped of parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
The Zagreb County Court sentenced Glavas to 10 years' imprisonment for war crimes against Serb civilians, and the Supreme Court reduced the sentence by two years. Before the trial court verdict was handed down, he fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he is serving his prison sentence.
