Zagreb County Court on Monday upheld an indictment against Zagreb County head Stjepan Kozic for paying for a private lunch with county money.

The USKOK anti-corruption office claims in the indictment, filed last January, that Kozic used county money to pay for food and drinks for personnel of Zagreb’s Merkur hospital, where he was treated in January 2020.

USKOK claims that Kozic asked the head of his office, Mirjana Ostrec-Bosak, to have food and drinks ordered and delivered from a restaurant to the hospital, which cost €697, and that she wrote on the back of the receipt that it was for an event she knew did not take place and was not for official purposes.

USKOK also claims that in order to cover up the unfounded disposal of money, Kozic signed a document stating that the cost referred to a lunch organised as part of preparations for a project.

According to the media, Koiic and Ostrec-Bosak wrote on the receipt that it was for a lunch with representatives of the Science and Education Ministry.