Krapina-Zagorje County Prefect Željko Kolar under investigation for corruption

The State Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation against Krapina-Zagorje County Prefect and senior SDP official over alleged corruption in a solar power plant project. The Prosecutor’s Office suspects the County Prefect of favoritism in the process of selecting an investor.

In question are five solar power plants to be built in the City of Zabok. However, along with the suspicion of favoritism, there is also the issued of the land the plants are set to be built on. The land is owned by some four hundred locals, which the investors want to expropriate. When confronted with the news of the investigation on Wednesday, County Prefect Željko Kolar said only that he would cooperate with the authorities: "All I can say is that I found out about this while watching the news last night, and that no one has contacted me about it. As to anything else on the subject we provided a statement this morning and have nothing further to add at this time."

Here's how the Chair of the HDZ bench in Croatian Parliament, Ante Sanader, commented on the investigation: "Justice comes for everyone. After the fascistization of everything, this is Možemo and the SDP's second pillar; accusing the HDZ of corruption. And yet now I could say that corruption is at the top levels of the SDP. Personally, I believe that everyone is responsible for their actions, and right now he is only being investigated. Nothing has been proven."

Kolar’s party colleague, SDP MP Saša Đujić, said that the fact that an investigation was underway was not proof of any wrongdoing: "The HDZ always calls for the presumption of innocence, so I'm not going to make any comment here. These are just investigations, we don't even have an indictment or anything, and there are all kinds of investigations in the country. In effect the police are conducting this investigation due to media scrutiny, and that's OK."

Source: HRT