The Zagreb County Court on Friday ruled that the owner of Dioki Grupa and the Rijeka-based Novi List daily, Robert Jezic, would remain in investigative prison for a month due to risk of witness and evidence tampering, court officials said.
The anti-corruption agency USKOK had requested placing Jezic in custody also due to the risk that he could repeat the crime he was suspected of and escape, since in Switzerland he owns the Dioki AG company which is the owner of Dioki Grupa, but investigating judge Erna Drazancic rejected the motion.
Earlier today, Jezic presented his defence in USKOK offices, after which his attorney Veljko Miljevic said that he expected his client to be detained because he had not told the investigators what they had hoped to hear.
Miljevic would not say what his client was being charged with, saying only that Jezic had denied all the charges.
According to previous reports, Jezic is suspected, together with the former CEO of the HEP power company, Ivan Mravak, HEP executive Ivan Mrljak, and former prime minister Ivo Sanader, of involvement in HEP's selling electricity to Dioki far below market prices.
Former HEP CEO Mravak is also suspected of giving companies that are part of the Dioki concern, without the approval of the HEP management, a loan in the amount of 15 million kuna (approx. EUR 2 million).
