Commenting on the Zagreb County Court verdict in the trial of former defence minister Berislav Roncevic and his aide Ivo Bacic, Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that the SDP, which initiated the establishment of a parliamentary commission to investigate that case, had known from the very start that the procedure to buy military trucks for the Defence Ministry in 2004 had been conducted in a way that was unacceptable in a democratic country.
"The court has stated its position, and we had no doubts... that the trucks had been paid too much, that the procedure to buy them was non-transparent and arbitrary and that the quality of the purchased goods was less good than what Croatia needed, and the difference cost millions of kuna," Milanovic told reporters in his party's offices while commenting on the Zagreb County Court ruling of today which sentenced former defence minister Berislav Roncevic to four years in prison and his former assistant Ivo Bacic to two years in prison for wrongdoing in the 2004 purchase of military trucks for the Defence Ministry.
"Former President Stjepan Mesic was the first one to warn about it, and I thank him for it, but the SDP insisted on and pushed that case through the institutions," said Milanovic.
