The Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) has dropped an investigation into Damir Polancec, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, over suspicions that he helped former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to abuse his powers and enable MOL to acquire management rights over Croatia's oil and gas company INA.
Leaving the Zagreb County Court's building on Monday where he is standing trial for murky dealings in the Koprivnica-based Podravka company, Polancec said he was very pleased with the fact that he was no longer under investigation for the case of INA and Sanader's role in MOL's acquisition of more shares in INA.
Polancec said that he had received a notification from the USKOK investigative agency last week that he was no longer under investigation in this case.
All of this confirms what I have talked about since the start of the investigation. I insisted on giving my deposition as soon as possible and I provided USKOK with a lot of material evidence and USKOK has concluded that the evidence is credible, Polancec said.
The reason cited for the cessation of the investigation into Polancec is that evidence was not found to corroborate suspicions that Polancec aided and abetted Sanader in committing the offence when he, according to USKOK suspicions, received EUR 10 million in kickbacks from Zsolt Hernadi, MOL CEO, in return for enabling the Hungarian company to acquire management rights over INA.
Polancec also insisted on refuting USKOK's allegations that he had deluded government members about the amending of the said agreement between INA and MOL.
He said today that those who listened to government sessions or read the presentation of the planned modification at the inner cabinet could not claim that something was unclear to them.
Presenting his defence before USKOK and answering questions from a parliamentary commission of inquiry, Sanader also insisted that government members, governing coalition partners and the then President Stjepan Mesic had been acquainted with details of the contentious agreement.
USKOK investigator Tamara Laptos today refused to say why the investigation was dropped against Polancec in the INA case, citing confidentiality of the ongoing probe.
The Croatian prosecutorial authorities have requested their Hungarian counterparts to question Hernadi over this case, but they turned down the request, explaining that the revelation of requested data could undermine Hungary's security."
