The State Attorney's office has dropped the charges against Croatian football player Luka Modric for making false statements in the trial against football mogul and former Dinamo club boss Zdravko Mamic, the daily newspaper Jutarnji List reported on Wednesday.

Another national football player, Dejan Lovren, was also charged but never came to trial as the courts threw out the charges.

While the case against Lovren recently ended with a final court judgement by the Zagreb County Court, the Modric case was returned to the Osijek prosecutor’s office for further questioning and a new indictment following another decision by the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court.

The new indictment “made no sense”

However, the State Attorney’s office came to the conclusion that a new, third indictment against Modric made no sense, as it would be dismissed again, as in the Lovren case. It informed the Municipal Criminal Court in Zagreb that it would not hold a further hearing against Modric, but would reject the criminal complaint against him and discontinue the prosecution.

In 2021, the Supreme Court sentenced Zdravko Mamic to six and a half years in prison for diverting 116 million kuna (15.4 million euros) from Dinamo. His brother Zoran was sentenced to four years and eight months, former Dinamo director Damir Vrbanovic to three years and tax official Milan Pernar to three years and two months.

The Supreme Court, which upheld the non-final judgement  of the Osijek District Court, stated that the court did not believe Modric and described his testimony as “unconvincing, illogical and designed to favour the defence of Zdravko Mamić” As for Lovren, the Supreme Court stated that he had been instructed on what to say at the hearing.