Dejan Lovren’s and Luka Modrić’s transfers are part of the case.
The trial against Croatia’s football boss and former head of Dinamo Zagreb Football Club Zdravko Mamić began at the Osijek County Court, reports Jutarnji List on April 28, 2017.
The prosecution believes that it will prove charges that Mamić and several of his co-defendants financially damaged Dinamo for just under 116 million kuna, and damaged the state budget of at least 12.2 million kuna in unpaid taxes.
Prosecutor Sven Mišković pointed out in his opening speech that during the trial he would prove that the accused tax administration official, Milan Pernar, intentionally did not attempt to determine from which source Zoran Mamić, Zdravko Mamić’s brother, returned the loans he had received from Dinamo in the amount of over 25 million kuna, and that he received bribes in order to enable Zoran Mamić's avoidance of paying over 12 million kuna in taxes.
The prosecution claims that it will prove the money received from Dejan Lovren's transfer from Dinamo to Lyon in early 2010 should have stayed at Dinamo. Instead, the accused allegedly subsequently prepared the documents that gave Lovren the right to 50 percent of the transfer, which ultimately ended up in the hands of Zdravko and Zoran Mamić.
The prosecution will also try to prove that Dinamo gave Zoran Mamić over 24 million kuna in loans which were not properly returned.
Another charge concerns the alleged illegalities with the transfer of Luka Modrić to Tottenham in April 2008, which stipulated that the English club should pay Dinamo 21 million euros. The prosecution claims that Zdravko Mamić had antidated the annex of the contract between Dinamo and Modrić, which was actually made at a time when Modrić had already gone to England, in order to justify the payment of 50 percent of the transfer compensation to Modrić. Most of that amount was allegedly paid to Zdravko Mamić.
The prosecution stressed that Zdravko Mamić had “unconditional influence and authority in Dinamo” and that “no major decision in the club was made without his knowledge and consent.”
Zdravko Mamić’s attorney Jadranka Sloković said in her introductory speech that during the trial she would prove that the charges had no legal or factual basis, and that the indictment was a product of erroneous interpretation of tax regulations when it comes to the transfer of Dinamo players.
Zdravko Mamić himself said the allegations from the indictment were lies, adding that he had prepared a large number of documents to challenge the allegations that he damaged Dinamo’s financial interest. He said he would prove that the prosecution had manipulated the testimony of Dejan Lovren and Luka Modrić.
Zoran Mamić’s attorney Čedo Prodanović said that the court proceedings were part of the campaign which institutions were leading against the Mamić brothers and their associates, with the aim of criminalizing them at all costs.
Dejan Lovren is expected to be questioned by the court on 29 May.
In a statement to journalists after the hearing, Zdravko Mamić said that, before his arrival to the club, nobody had paid any taxes on transfers of players abroad, and that Modrić’s and Lovren’s transfers were the only ones which brought tax revenue to the state, and that he and his associates have ended up in prison for that.
