ZAGREB, Sept 19, 2020 - An investigating judge of Zagreb County Court on Friday evening imposed 30-day pre-trial detention on 10 suspects in the influence-peddling probe which also implicates the Janaf oil pipeline operator's CEO, Dragan Kovacevic, the Elektrocentar company's founder Kreso Petek and two mayors.

There are 13 suspects covered by the investigation so far.

The decision on remanding in the mayors, Drazen Barisic of Velika Gorica, and Vinko Grgic of Nova Gradiska are expected to be made on Saturday.

The 10 suspects have been taken into investigative custody for fear of tampering with witnesses.

The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Thursday evening launched an investigation into the CEO of oil pipeline operator Janaf and another twelve people on suspicion of influence peddling, bribery, illicit preferential treatment, and aiding and abetting in these crimes.

The main suspect Petek allegedly gave Kovacevic HRK 1.96 million in reward for business deals awarded to his company by JANAF since September 2019.

He is also suspected of giving HRK 100,000 to the mayor of Nova Gradiska, in reward for helping award a deal in a public tender to a consortium that included Petek's company.

The mayor of Velika Gorica allegedly ensured the award of an HRK 97.3 million public procurement deal to Petek's company. Using his mayoral position, he asked the chairman of the board of the local water management company to modify public tender documentation to suit the demands of Petek and his consultant.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

You might recall that at the end of last year, the Chinese offered to build a national stadium in Zagreb, which Croatian Football Federation president Davor Šuker said did not exist. Today, however, 10 kilometers from Zagreb, an agreement has been signed between Velika Gorica, the Zagreb County Football Federation and the Chinese company Z-Run Well Ton Industry about a similar project in Velika Gorica, reports Index.hr on April 19, 2019. 

"This is the first step towards the realization of a Chinese company's investment in the sports infrastructure of Velika Gorica," announced the Office of the Mayor of Velika Gorica.

"Velika Gorica has become a favorite city for investors over the last couple of years, first with our domestic companies, such as the Atlantic Group, and now with foreign capital. We established the first contacts with the official delegation of China a few years ago, and today we discussed concrete projects here. I am pleased to develop this in a positive direction, and that foreign investors recognize our potential for their investments,” said the mayor of Velika Gorica, Dražen Barišić.

Today, after signing the agreement, Barišić revealed that the Chinese are satisfied with Gorica.

"The city has presented the possibilities of investing in sports infrastructure, which includes the stadium with accompanying facilities. The Chinese delegation also visited a potential field that spatially plans to meet the needs of stadium construction, and is the result of today's signing of the Agreement. In recent years, Velika Gorica has become a city of interest to investors, and I am pleased to see that this interest has expanded beyond our borders and that foreign investors express business intentions."

It will be a state-of-the-art stadium that will host the world's biggest football events.

"The infrastructure you have is more than satisfactory because you are connected to the whole of Croatia, the proximity to the airport is also an advantage, and we like the look of Velika Gorica. We see great potential in your city, not just for the construction of stadiums, but for investment in various forms of sports infrastructure and the sports industry,” said Jiang Yu, president of the Beijing-based company.

The new stadium would supposedly be similar to the Astana Arena in the capital of Kazakhstan, which was recently named Nur-Sultan. The agreement on understanding should, by 2021, bring the construction of a football stadium with a capacity of 30 to 35,000 spectators. 

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.