Former minister of construction, Darko Horvat, was released from pre-trial detention after the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) questioned three witnesses relevant for the charges pressed against Horvat.

Horvat’s lawyer Vladmir Teresak announced his client’s release earlier in the day. On 19 February, a Zagreb County Court investigating judge remanded Horvat in one month’s custody on suspicion that, at the urging of other suspects in this case, he illegally disbursed 2.6 million kuna in grants in 2018 when he served as economy minister.

Horvat was remanded in custody so that he could not tamper with witnesses, but not due to the risk of repeating the crime since he was relieved of duty as construction minister at his own request. During his interrogation on 19 February, Horvat denied any wrongdoings.

That day, USKOK stated that based on a police report, it had launched an investigation of two persons on suspicion of abuse of office and that another four suspects in the case were accused of incitement to the offense.

USKOK did not reveal the identities of the six suspects, however, earlier that day media outlets reported that they are Horvat, his former aide Ana Mandac, Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milosević, the Regional Development Ministry’s state secretary Velimir Zunac, the director of the administration for assisted areas, Katica Miskovic, and former minister Tomislav Tolusic.

According to USKOK’s statement, in his previous capacity as economy minister, Horvat is believed to have okayed the disbursement of grants in the amount of 2.6 million kuna (€347,000) to some businesses ineligible for that aid, from November 2018 to the end of that year, at the urging of Tolusic, Milosevic, Zunac and Miskovic.