PM dismisses Minister Vili Beroš who was arrested on suspicion of corruption

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has dismissed Minister of Health Vili Beroš and appointed State Secretary Irena Hrstić to lead the ministry until further notice. Everything happened after another action by the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The now former minister Beroš was arrested along with several of his colleagues. Vili Beroš for trading in influence, and two other persons who are being investigated for receiving and giving bribes, criminal associations, abuse of position and authority, and money laundering. 

The press release from the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Zagreb, among other things, stated:

"The arrests and the implementation of urgent evidentiary actions are the result of investigations previously carried out by the Office for Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime. The aforementioned actions were carried out in the area of Zagreb and Skradin in relation to several persons, one of whom is a high-ranking government official, who is reasonably suspected of having committed corrupt criminal acts.”

It was confirmed from the Headquarters of the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Luxembourg that an investigation is ongoing in Croatia against the Minister of Health and seven other persons.

Among those arrested is the head of the Sisters of Mercy Clinical Hospital Center, Neurosurgery Clinic, Krešimir Rotim, something his lawyer Ljubo Pavasović Visković confirmed for Croatian radio. However, he did not want to comment on why his client was arrested.

“Mr. Beroš fully refutes any kind of criminal responsibility. That is truly all I can comment at this moment,” said Vili Beroš's lawyer, Laura Valković in a brief address to the media.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković hastily dismissed Beroš from his ministerial post, and at a press conference he did not hide his outrage.

“I want, in the name of the entire government, firstly to give unreserved support to bodies of criminal prosecution to thoroughly investigate and process this case. I am personally disgusted by the idea that anybody in health care uses their position for personal gain or favoring someone else,” said the Prime Minister.

If the accusations against Beroš turn out to be true, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the he would “See that as an act of betrayal, of the personal trust I had in him for these five years, since I gave him the honor of being a minister in the Croatian government."

Unofficial information is circulating in the public that the first suspect whom the European Public Prosecutor's Office designates as the leader of the criminal association is controversial businessman Hrvoje Petrač. He was allegedly not arrested because he is not in Croatia. Beroš is accused of taking 25,000 euro bribes for the purchase of disputed medical devices at two hospitals in Zagreb and one in Osijek, amounting to a total of 75,000 euros.

Saša Pozder, the director of the Medical Innovation Company, which sold devices to hospitals, was arrested in Skradin, and the headquarters of his company in Zagreb was searched by investigators.

Source: HRT