The Supervisory Board of the Croatian public broadcasting service HRT unanimously agreed at an extraordinary meeting on Friday to initiate the procedure for the dismissal of Director-General Kazimir Bacic after he was arrested in a corruption investigation earlier this week, Supervisory Board Chairman Mladen Cutura confirmed to the Croatian state news agency Hina.

USKOK corruption investigators suspect that Bacic, acting on behalf of businessman Milan Loncaric, took €50,000 in a bribe to the late Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic for the Gardens of Light project. As a reward for his role, Bacic is believed to have been given an apartment worth 1 million kuna (€133,000) in central Zagreb.

The HRT Management Board said on Thursday that Director of Programming Renato Kunic had assumed the duties of Director-General.

The status of Kazimir Bacic will be decided by Parliament’s Media Committee.

Bacic was appointed HRT Director-General by Parliament on 17 February 2017 by 90 votes in favour, 12 abstentions and no votes against. He had previously served as Head of Technical Services at the HRT.