Two more of a total of ten defendants in the case in which the main defendants are the former mayors of Nova Gradiska and Velika Gorica, Vinko Grgic and Drazen Barisic, and businessman Kreso Petek, pleaded guilty on Wednesday and were sentenced to community service and fined.

The ten defendants, in this case, were indicted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) on 25 May.

Zagreb County Court confirmed the indictment on Wednesday against EU funds expert Iva Grdic and Petek’s adviser and consultant Mirjana Prodan who pleaded guilty to all the counts in the indictment.

Grdic was sentenced to 11 months in prison, and the punishment was replaced by  community service and a fine of 100,000 kuna (€13,400), while Prodan was also sentenced to 11 months in prison, and her punishment, too, was replaced by community service and a fine of 200,000 kuna (€26,700).

Grdic admitted that she participated in rigging a tender in Petek’s favour for the construction of a recycling yard and a solar power plant in Nova Gradiska. Prodan admitted that she participated in rigging the tender for Petek’s company to build a public water purifier and public lighting system in Velika Gorica.

“Without specifying the identities of the defendants, the EPPO said that in the period between 2018 and 2021 they amended technical specifications and criteria in order to award tenders to Petek’s company for several projects co-financed from the Cohesion Fund and the European Fund for Regional Development of the European Union,” state news agency Hina said.

Hina did not explain how they confirmed their identities.

“Today’s convictions have found that both accused persons were adjusting the Procurement Documentation in public procurement procedures. Between 2018 and 2021, they changed the technical capacity requirements, bid evaluation, and scoring criteria to secure the assignment of several projects co-financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to one company,” EPPO said on their website.

Zvonko Maras from the Solarna Energija company and Tomislav Jelisavac and Katarina Gasparac from the VG Vodoopskrba company in Velika Gorica were sentenced in the same case at the end of September.

After they entered a plea bargain with the prosecutor’s office, they were found guilty of illegal favoritism and attempted abuse of position and authority. Maras and Jelisavac were sentenced to community service, while Katarina Gasparac was released on probation.