The mayor of the northern Croatian town of Varazdin and member of parliament, Ivan Cehok said on Thursday he didn't know anything about the investigation that the anti-corruption agency USKOK had allegedly launched against him on suspicion that he had intervened so that the city would pay for the land of one owner twice as much than the real market price.
USKOK unofficially said that it had been looking into the allegation in Varazdin, stressing however, that no investigation has been launched yet.
Cehok told Hina in a telephone interview that placing the information about a possible investigation was irresponsible. "I know as much as you. I have no information about a possible investigation against me, but it is unusual and weird for me to find out about this from the media. It is really strange for the media to know about a possible investigation before me," Cehok said.
"To be able to launch an investigation against I would have to be stripped of my parliamentary immunity first," he stressed.
According to the media, Cehok is suspected of having favoured Vesna Cesarac, the wife of Varazdin Chamber of Commerce president Cedomil Cesarac, over other real-estate owners s by paying her twice as much for a square metre of land.
Cehik said that local self-government units can either accept or decline the price the owner of the land asks. Given that the price the owner of the land had requested was lower than the one determined by an experts, the city council decided to purchase the land at the asked price, Cehok said, stressing that the decision was not his but of the city council.
Cehok refuted media claims that he had favoured his friend's wife stressing that "Cesarac was 25 years older than him" and that they were not friends.
