ZAGREB, 23 Feb 2022 - The Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Wednesday issued an indictment against former Knin mayor and state secretary Josipa Rimac of the HDZ party and another 26 suspects, including several former office-holders, on corruption and abuse of office charges.
The USKOK investigated this case after a scandal dubbed "wind parks" broke out, but the indictment, which was lodged with Zagreb County Court today, does not refer to the circumstances surrounding the wind parks case, but to alleged irregularities in the allocation of state aid to farmers and grants to businesses, unfair employment and state exams from 2017 to 2020.
Concerning the state aid allocation, former economy assistant minister Ana Mandac is one of the suspects, and her recent testimony resulted in Saturday's arrest of Minister Darko Horvat, who is implicated in the disbursement of grants to ineligible businesses in 2018 when he served as the economy minister.
With regards the favouring of applicants who were expected to pass the state exam to get employment in the state administration, Gabrijela Žalac, former minister for regional development and EU funds, and Ružica Njavro, former Agriculture Ministry chief of staff, are charged with those offences.
The former mayor of Gračac, Nataša Turbić of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), and several business people are suspected of giving bribes to Rimac.
Rimac's lawyer, Lidija Horvat, told Hina that they had not yet officially received a copy of the indictment.
After the wind parks scandal broke out, Rimac was arrested in May 2020, and spent 124 days in pre-trial detention.
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