Croatia Former EU Funds Minister Arrested for Corruption

Croatia's Former Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds from 2016 to 2019, Gabrijela Zalac, spent Wednesday night in police custody after she, the director of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency SAFU, Tomislav Petric, and two entrepreneurs were arrested on Wednesday as part of an operation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office EPPO in Croatia, an EU watchdog monitoring how EU funds are spent.

The four should be brought before a judge on Thursday. The EPPO is  likely to ask for them to remain in custody, out of fear of obstructing the investigation, N1 regional news outlet reported.

They were arrested in a case dubbed "Software". EPPO Croatia said it was collecting evidence about the four persons in cooperation with the police's anti-corruption office PNUSKOK. The four are suspected of crimes committed in the ministry and SAFU related to overpayment for the public procurement of an information system, Croatia's news agency HINA reported.

The case concerns the design of software, which the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds awarded to the Ampelos company when Zalac was the minister.

Three weeks ago, on EPPO orders, police conducted several searches in the ministry and seized documents relating to the Ampelos contract.

News portal Telegram first broke the story in the summer of 2019, claiming that Zalac, then Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds, paid 13 million kuna, about 1.7 million euro, for software whose original cost was 2.9 million kuna, around 400,000 euro.

The police also reported that they will investigate threats made yesterday to Telegram journalist Drago Hedl. Mario Zalac, husband of the arrested ex-minister, threatened the journalist on Wednesday, as the police were...

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