SDP MP: State prosecutor should investigate Finance Minister

N1

"The transcripts of former Economy Minister Martina Dalic's deposition to anti-corruption police Uskok laid bare what government structures are like since HDZ took power," Social Democrat MP Pedja Grbin said in his appearance on N1 television on Monday.

“What we have here is clientelism, forming of cliques… constant lying – to citizens, to members of parliament, to the media, and also to institutions. Because both (Finance Minister) Zdravko Maric and the government lied to the Commission on Conflict of Interest,” Grbin added.

Although members of the cabinet said that the story around their handling of the crisis at Agrokor is a done thing, Grbin told N1 that it isn’t so, for a number of reasons.

“The proceedings against the Prime Minister are currently ongoing at the Commission for Conflict of Interest, after me and my colleague, (Sinisa) Hajdas-Doncic had filed a formal report. The media have helped in that, because the Commission can and should use publicly available information. By publishing these transcripts, the proceedings against Plenkovic are completely open. The Commission, if it sticks to the law, to its principles, can only reach the same decision it had made earlier in the case of (former leader of HDZ) Tomislav Karamarko – i.e. that he is guilty,” Grbin said.

He added that the state prosecutor (DORH) should look into Finance Minister Zdravko Maric.

“As for Mr. Maric, the Commission is also obliged to act. There is so much new information out there now that nobody can complain that they are investigating the same thing twice. And the state prosecutor (DORH) should also react, after they received a lot of publicly available information that they can act upon. In the case of Maric, it can be seen (from the transcripts) that he had lied. So DORH could launch proceedings over perjury. The transcripts showed that there hadn’t been just two meetings (Maric attended, as he had claimed earlier) – but seven, and that Maric had lied in that he did advise the group, so DORH should launch proceedings against him. I hereby call on lawyers, state attorneys, to look into what the media have released, that they get official records from their colleagues at anti-corruption police Uskok, that they use the records with maric’s earlier deposition to the Commission, and that they launch proceedings against him for perjury,” Grbin said.

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