Croatia Indicts Two for Ukraine Jet Deal Bribery

The Croatian office for suppressing corruption and organised crime, USKOK, filed an indictment on Friday against two Croatian citizens over the controversial deal to repair and buy MiG military jets from the Ukrainian state-owned arms company Ukrspecexport.

After more than nine months of an investigation which also involved the Military Security and Intelligence Agency and the military police, USKOK filled the indictment at Zagreb county court against a defence ministry employee and an employee of the company involved in the deal.

The defence ministry employee was a member of an expert committee that was considering the repair of the jets.

According to the indictment, the suspect asked for a 50,000 euro bribe from companies that applied for the public tender.

Representatives of one company rejected the demand, while a representative from the second company - the second indictee - accepted the offer and paid the ministry employee at least 10,000 euros on two occasions in January and February this year.

The Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list reported in March that military police and VSOA were investigating the 17.6 million euro deal, made in July 2013 between the Croatian defence ministry and Ukrspecexport.

Under the terms of the deal, the Ukrainians would repair seven Soviet-model MiG-21 jets and sell Croatia another five used jets.

The contract said the five MiGs that would be sold to Croatia were once used by the Jordanian air force.

According to Jutarnji list, however, the five jets were not formerly used by Jordan but were put together using old parts from Bulgaria, Algeria and the former Soviet Union.

It also claimed that the jets sent for repair contained parts which did not...