ZAGREB, March 4, 2020 - Police said on Wednesday that they had identified the perpetrator who had recently smashed windows on the Zagreb eye clinic owned by ophthalmologist Nikica Gabrić, who attracted public attention by confessing that he is a member of Freemasons.

A 37-year-old man was identified and taken into police custody on the suspicion that he had damaged the clinic on 24 February following media reports about Gabrić's membership in a Freemason lodge.

Gabrić has been in the limelight since his recent public dispute with former Chief State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić, which revealed that both men are Freemasons.

Jelenić resigned on 19 February, after he himself confirmed that he is a Freemason and accused Dr Gabrić of having tried to influence a preliminary investigation into three reporters who allegedly blackmailed the ophthalmologist demanding that he give them HRK 200,000 or they would publish photographs of a ceremony of the Masonic lodge to which Gabrić belongs. As soon as Jelenić made that statement, Gabrić dismissed it as false.

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February 18, 2020 - A couple of days ago, a small scandal appeared in the Croatian media, and as time passes and more people get accused of being members of the freemason organisation, it seems to be getting worse.

The first inkling that this might be a big story happened three days ago, when it was reported that several Croatian journalists from the website and magazine dnevno.hr were arrested (Mark Cigoj, editor in chief, Vuk Radić, a journalist and apparently also a mason himself, and Marija Dekanić, the owner).

The reason for their arrest was that they were attempting to extort Nikica Gabrić, a world-famous Croatian eye doctor. They threatened that they'd publish information about him being a freemason unless he purchased a large amount of advertising from their publication. Gabrić claims that he didn't care if the public was aware that he was a member and a master of a freemason lodge in Zagreb, but he wanted to protect the other members who were not financially independent, so he reported it all to law enforcement. Mark Cigoj, one of the arrested journalists, claims that the arrest was Gabrić's revenge for him refusing to join Gabrić's lodge previously.

The journalists were arrested and it seemed like the scandal was winding down, when the next wave came, this time including some more powerful people from the Croatian establishment. The Nacional weekly reported in their printed edition that Dražen Jelenić, Croatian Chief State Prosecutor, was also a freemason.

They claimed that this fact puts him in direct conflict of interest. After that, Gabrić claimed that Jelenić tried to blackmail him, while Jelenić claims the same thing, adding that Gabrić contacted him and tried to influence the investigation. Both of the freemasons are adamant that they have evidence to support their claims.

It is reported that the Croatian Government will discuss the State Prosecutor's position tomorrow, and Jelenić maintains that he's not at all in the situation of a conflict of interest, as he's no longer the member of Gabrić's freemason lodge.