Zagreb County Court on Thursday acquitted the owner of the Gavrilovic meat-processing company, Georg Gavrilovic, of the charges of war profiteering, with Judge Renata Milicevic ruling that the statute of limitations in this case had run out.

Gavrilovic was charged by the Uskok anti-corruption office that at the height of the Homeland War, with the assistance of the then finance minister Jozo Martinovic, he bought five companies within the Gavrilovic meat processing group for 2 million German marks.

Gavrilovic was charged under a law under which there is no statute of limitations on crimes of war profiteering and privatisation-related crimes, given that the alleged crimes were committed between 11 November 1991 and the end of October 1992 when Croatia was in a state of war. He denied any wrongdoing.

Uskok claims that Gavrilovic took advantage of the state of war to gain several bankrupt companies whose value was estimated at 68 million German marks.