Zagreb County Court on Saturday ruled that former health minister Vili Beros and businessman Sasa Pozder should be placed in a 30-day pretrial custody while neurosurgeon Kresimir Rotim, the third suspect in this case of medical robotics procurement bid rigging, will be released from custody.

The three were arrested on Friday and spent the night in the police custody.

Croatia’s anti-corruption agency USKOK, which has launched an investigation into the health minister Vili Beros, who was sacked upon his arrest on Friday, businessman Saša Pozder and neurosurgeon Kresimir Rotim implicated in a deal about overblown prices for medical equipment, has demanded detention for Beros and Pozder and not for Rotim.

The Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) stated that the investigation in this case covers also possible wrongdoings done by doctor Krešimir Rotim, the head of the neurology department within the Clinical Hospital Center Sestre Milosrdnice in Zagreb, however conditions have not been met for proposing a pre-trial detention for this suspect.

Media outlets on Saturday morning interpreted this as the indication that Rotim pleaded guilty to wrongdoings during the initial questioning which is why he need not be remanded in custody.

While he was being escorted by the police to the relevant court in Zagreb on Saturday morning, the now-former health minister Vili Beros told the press outside the court building that the charges against him were unfounded and that he would succeed in proving his innocence.

USKOK charges Beros, Pozdr and Rotim of having conspired from mid-2022 to the end of 2023 to sell medical equipment of an Austrian producer to state-owned hospitals in Croatia at overinflated prices.

They are charged with abuse of office, influence peddling, and bribery in this criminal enterprise. Pozder’s company illegally earned almost a half million euros through those unlawful deals.

Rotim is believed to have enabled bid rigging according to the instructions made by Pozder to make it possible for Pozder’s bids to be the only one that fulfill the requirements, while in his capacity as the health minister, Beros used his authority to ask heads of state hospitals to buy the equipment provided by Pozder’s companies.

In return, a private medical clinic owned by Rotim was delivered some equipment free of charge.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb has also initiated an investigation against eight individuals, including former Minister Beros and the directors of two hospitals in Zagreb, and two companies on suspicion of accepting and giving bribes, abuse of position and authority and money laundering.

EPPO also alleges that the manipulation of the public procurement proceedings enabled the suspected company, the bidder in this procurement procedure to earn illegal gain and that “the operating microscopes were purchased for a price that was unjustifiably increased by €619.582,64, to the detriment of the Croatian national budget.”

The jurisdiction of USKOK and EPPO has become topical since the scandal broke out.