Sisak Municipal Court judge Mirko Djukic on Tuesday rejected all six private defamation lawsuits that Kutina Mayor and former HDZ member Zlatko Babic filed against whistleblower Adrijana Cvrtila, who publicly pointed to politically motivated staffing.

Judge Djukic referred to the EU Whistleblower Directive, which is the first such case related to whistleblowers and defamation lawsuits in Croatia, Cvrtila said on social media.

According to the EU Directive, whistleblowers cannot be held responsible for their public statements or be prosecuted for defamation and disclosure of business secrets, if they pointed out irregularities and illegalities.

The USKOK anti-corruption office launched an investigation against Babic, former chairman of the Kutina City Council Davor Kljakic of the HSLS, independent councillor Drazen Kinderman and former councillor Darko Kousek after Cvrtila, as the director of Eko Moslavina, went public two years ago with information that Babic and Kljakic exerted pressure to employ certain party members and relatives of councillors in Eko Moslavina or to increase their salaries, all in order to ensure the vote of those councillors for the budget and budget revision.

Cvrtila reported Babic and Kljakic to USKOK, while Babic rejected the accusations, saying they were politically motivated.

After USKOK launched an investigation into the “Eko Moslavina” case, Babic was remanded in custody due to the risk of influencing witnesses, and after USKOK’s appeal, an investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court extended his detention due to the risk of repeating the crime.

Babic’s co-suspects Kljakic, Drazen Kindermanm and Kousek were released pending trial after all the witnesses were questioned.

In September 2021, Babic announced that he was leaving the HDZ because he did not want the party he joined in 1989 to “be dragged through the mud” and underscored that he wanted to remove any indication of his responsibility through the competent institutions.