Attorney Anto Nobilo confirmed on Tuesday that Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosevic hired him to handle his defense after the Uskok anti-corruption investigators had accused Milosevic of "inciting abuse of office" in a graft probe involving state subsidies.

Nobilo told state news agency Hina that he was now waiting to see the case file so that he could start preparing a defense. He said Milosevic had not been questioned at Uskok headquarters, and that he would not state his defense before seeing the case file.

Nobilo confirmed that Milosevic was accused by investigators of “incitement to abuse of office.”

“Milosevic believes that he is not guilty,” Nobilo told RTL television. “He merely advocated for the constituents who had elected him, and did not ask someone else to commit a crime.”

Milosevic is a member of the Serb ethnic minority and an official of the largest ethnic Serb party in Croatia, SDSS. The probe involving him deals with state subsidies for small businesses, some of which were allegedly irregularly granted to Serb-owned firms. SDSS is a junior partner in Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s government led by his conservative HDZ party.

Nobilo said Milosevic should not appeal against the investigation, which is also looking into former Construction Minister, Darko Horvat, who was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of abuse of office, after which he was dismissed from the cabinet of Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic.

“Investigators had launched a criminal procedure based on a witness deposition. They believed the deposition and that is enough to launch an investigation,” Nobilo said.

According to local media, Uskok is currently investigating six persons. Horvat, who is in custody, and his former aide, Ana Mandac, are charged with abuse of office.

Apart from Milosevic, local media speculates that Uskok is also investigating an official of the Ministry for Regional Development and EU Funds, Velimir Zunac, the head of the so-called “administration for assisted areas,” Katica Miskovic, and former Minister for Agriculture, Tomislav Tolusic.

Horvat, named as the main suspect in the case, was arrested after Mandac testified to Uskok that some subsidies allocated by the Economy Ministry were given to businesses in spite of them not meeting the specified criteria, during the time when Horvat headed the Ministry. Prior to taking over the Ministry of Construction, Horvat was head of the Ministry of Economy from May 2018 to July 2020.

Horvat, in turn, claims that all he did was sign documents which were prepared and brought to him by Mandac.