ZAGREB, 22 April (2022) - The State Attorney's Office (DORH) said on Friday it was conducting inquiries into Construction, Physical Planning and State Assets Minister Ivan Paladina and examining criminal complaints filed against him.

DORH said Paladina confirmed that complaints had been filed against him and that, after examining some of them, it decided to dismiss them.

DORH said it requested that the remaining complaints be examined.

According to the Index web portal, prosecutors are looking into Paladina's acquisition of bonds in the IGH construction company.

Paladina says nothing new in report on inquiries

Responding to DORH's press release, the minister said it contained "absolutely nothing new."

"It is already known that my former partners filed several criminal complaints against me, nearly all of which have been dismissed, as confirmed by DORH today. As far as I know, the procedure in one or two complaints is not over yet," he told Hina.

"After a criminal complaint has been filed against you, DORH must look into it," he added.

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February 23, 2022 - The State Attorney's Office has filed an indictment against Harald Kopitz, who killed his three children in Zagreb's Mlinovi last year. He faces up to 50 years in prison.

As reported by Total Croatia News, in September last year Austrian citizen Harald Kopitz was arrested by Croatian police in Zagreb for the murder of his three children. 

Harald and his wife were divorced, and she left her children to spend the weekend with their father while she was on a business trip in Dubrovnik. On the night of September 25, following a worrying Facebook status posted by Kopitz that was later reported by his contacts, Zagreb police entered Harald's apartment only to find the dead bodies of the children and their father in critical condition after attempting suicide.

Harald Kopitz, an Austrian citizen residing in Zagreb, was arrested by the police for the alleged murder of his three children, which was later confirmed. In the Facebook status he posted, Kopitz wrote something of a farewell letter, noting that his ex-wife thwarted their current love relationship and that his job situation was not improving. In addition, he stressed that he did not receive the necessary support and that he was ''at the end''. The worrying post caught the attention of his contacts, who reported it to the police. You can read the full story here.

As Index.hr reports today, the State Attorney's Office (DORH) has filed an indictment against Harald Kopitz for the murder of his three children. The Austrian citizen faces up to 50 years in prison.

"Following an investigation, the Zagreb County State's Attorney's Office filed an indictment before the Zagreb County Court on 23 February 2022 against a citizen of the Republic of Austria (1965) for three offenses against life and limb and three aggravated murders under Article 111. items 1 and 2 in conjunction with Article 51 of the Criminal Code. 

The indictment charges the defendant that on September 24, 2021, at around 10:00 pm, in Zagreb, in the apartment where he was staying with his three minor children (2013, 2013 and 2016), with a premeditated intention to deprive the children of their lives, took advantage of the children's trust in him as a father and committed the aforementioned criminal offenses to the detriment of the children. In the indictment, the Zagreb County State's Attorney's Office requested that the defendant's pre-trial detention be extended until the end of the criminal proceedings due to the danger of recidivism and particularly serious circumstances of committing this criminal offense (Article 123, paragraph 1, items 3 and 4 of the criminal proceedings)", announced the DORH.

Let us remind you that Kopitz killed his three children in Zagreb's Mlinovi at the end of September, and then tried to kill himself. He was sentenced to pre-trial detention because of the danger of repeating the crime, so as not to influence witnesses and because of the particularly difficult circumstances of the crime he is suspected of.

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January 19th, 2022 - Croatian Prime Minister Blames USKOK for Ruining Croatia's Spectacular Week

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković held an impromptu news conference following the arrest of Construction Minister Darko Horvat. The Prime Minister started the news conference by making an overview of the great week Croatia just had. He goes on to mention “major political events” such as the arrival of the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier in Split, government inflation measures, EU Fund Absorption extension, and contract signing for the Lekenik-Sisak section of the A11 motorway.

After he used the opening few minutes to commend the work of his government this week, he finally comments on the fact that one of his Ministers was arrested for alleged abuse of authority. Prime Minister ironically thanks to the DORH (State's Attorney Office of the Republic of Croatia) for the new political event he has to handle now and continues to shortly go through the case while mentioning other politicians that are potentially involved. USKOK (Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime) is a special state attorney ofice specialised for the prosecution of corruption and organised crime who is in charge of this case. Finally, we get to the point where the Prime Minister comments on the suspicious timing and over-dramatization while blaming DORH of having a hidden agenda. He continues to blame the media of creating a dramatic atmosphere and USKOK for unauthorized leak of information related to this investigation. The whole press conference passed with Prime Minister downplaying the importance of this case and stating that the case is dealing with relatively smaller sums while making accussation torwards both the press and the State's Attorney Office.

Without going into detail regarding the alleged abuse of authority, it is very interesting to see that during a political turmoil, when one of your ministers is arrested, Croatia's Prime Minister takes the opportunity to commend the work of his government. What is more he tries to relativize the the whole case even though he states that he does not know anything more than the general public. Political spins, accusations and arguments are not something unusual for Croatia's political scene, but as always Croatian politicians never fail to amaze us. 

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