Turudić: Tomašević is directly interfering with the judiciary

On Wednesday the Chief State Prosecutor accused the Mayor of Zagreb of directly interfering with the judiciary in the so-called hippodrome corruption case, but emphasized that he will not succeed in doing so.

During a visit to Zadar County on Wednesday Chief State Prosecutor Ivan Turudić accused Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević of meddling in the work of the judiciary in the so-called hippodrome corruption case: "Yesterday we heard a bestial, rude, panicked reaction from the Mayor of Zagreb who is interfering with the work of the judiciary, not only in USKOK, or the DORH, but also in the work of the courts. All our decisions that we have made have been confirmed by the competent court."

Commenting on Tomašević's statement yesterday that nothing new had been learned after the indictment against the former director of the "Sports Facilities Management" institution, Kosta Kostanjević, and his co-defendants, and that he was interested in what evidence the USKOK anti-corruption agency has against the accused, Turudić said that he did not know what Tomašević's motives were other than to intimidate his office: "Of course, they will not succeed in that, we will persist and continue to work. Tomašević is not a defendant in this case and he is indeed allowing himself the liberty of doing things that should not be tolerated in a civilized and democratic society."

The Chief State Prosecutor also commented on the request by the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on the Judiciary, Nikola Grmoja, to declassify a letter referring to the candidate for the President of the Supreme Court, Mirta Matić: "We received the request yesterday afternoon. We already had a meeting this morning. We discussed it and we will respond to the Committee on the Judiciary tomorrow, Friday at the latest."

Grmoja suspects that Matić, who has the support of President Zoran Milanović for the post, revealed classified information from a legal proceeding to her ex-husband.

Turudić also commented on the case of the arrested former Chief State Inspector Andrija Mikulić, for which he pointed out that the investigation is ongoing and that 22 witnesses need to be questioned: "This is a case we should be proud of. None of the defendants knew until the end that they would be arrested. We started the process in the morning around 8 am. When we determined that the defendant was outside of Zagreb, and considering the fact that our measures were about to expire, we took action and successfully implemented everything."

Source: HRT