Former transport minister Bozidar Kalmeta (HDZ) on Thursday pleaded not guilty at the start of his retrial at Zagreb County Court in the cases dubbed Fimi Media and HAC - Remorker.

The retrial started today after the country’s Supreme Court in mid-September 2022 quashed Kalmeta’s acquittal and ordered that and he and his three associates will again stand trial for siphoning over HRK 15 million and €850,000 from road construction and maintenance companies.

Kalmeta’s lawyer Kresimir Vilajtovic has told Hina recently that the defence will stick to its position that there is no evidence to corroborate the charges pressed by the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organsied Crime (USKOK) in these cases.

The Supreme Court ordered a retrial in the case fully upholding appeals by Kalmeta’s former state secretary Milivoj Mikulic, who also sat on the HAC highway operator’s management board, former HAC and Croatian Roads (HC) executive Stjepko Boban, and former Viadukt management board member Damir Kezele.

Four years ago, the Zagreb County Court sentenced Mikulic to three years in prison, Boban to two years and Kezele to three and a half years, and all three were ordered to pay back the unlawfully acquired gains.

Contrary to prosecutors’ allegations, the trial court concluded that Kalmeta did not organise a group to siphon money from the state-run companies, which, apart from him and the other three men who were found guilty, also included HAC Supervisory Board chair and state secretary Zdravko Livakovic, executives of construction companies Miroslav Bunic and Petar Pecin, and HAC and HC executives Jurica Prskalo, Mario Lovrincevic and Sandro Vukelic, who were all acquitted.

The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of former HAC and HC executives Prskalo and Lovrincevic.

Kalmeta was also acquitted of defrauding the ministry he headed of HRK 600,000 by commissioning the promotional film “The Transport Renaissance of Croatia” from the Fimi Media marketing agency. The agency was convicted, in a separate trial, for filling the HDZ’s slush fund with money from state institutions and companies.

Judges of the Supreme Court believe that Kalmeta was acquitted in that segment of the indictment based on an erroneous determination of the facts, which will have to be determined anew.

The former minister and long-time mayor of Zadar had denied the charges from the beginning, claiming that he was a victim of a politically motivated trial.