Trial of Bakula, Prlić and Kulenović continues: Robert Crnjac testified

The trial of Stipe Prlić, Zoran Bakula and Neven Kulenović continued today at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the indictment was read to them on September 11, in which Prlić and Bakula are charged with the criminal offense of abuse of position or authority under Article 383, paragraph 3, in conjunction with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the criminal offense of receiving gifts and other forms of benefit under Article 380, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kulenović is charged with the criminal offense of giving gifts and other forms of benefit under Article 381, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

As previously announced by prosecutor Miroslav Janjić, the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina will hear 15 witnesses in this case, and today Robert Crnjac testified. Crnjac said he was one of six members of the Public Procurement Commission of HT Eronet and stated that in the summer of 2007, a procedure was initiated for the development of a media leasing strategy.

Answering the prosecutor's questions, he said that the Commission prepared bids that were publicly read. The Commission's recommendations were sent to the management of HT Eronet, and he could not recall why the agency SVRSA of Neven Kulenović was chosen.

The defense again claimed today that they had not been provided with all the documentation.

The trial continues on October 16, and Toni Zlomislić, president of the Public Procurement Commission of HT Eronet, will testify.

Incidentally, this trio pleaded not guilty to the charges against them at a hearing held on August 13.

The indictment states that the accused Stipe Prlić, as director and president of the Management Board, and Zoran Bakula, as a member of the Management Board of JP Hrvatske telekomunikacije d.o.o. Mostar, within the public procurement procedure for the development of an "Integrated strategy for planning and leasing media according to target groups of JP HT d.o.o. Mostar, and planning and leasing media according to target groups of JP HT d.o.o. Mostar, and planning and leasing media in Bosnia and Herzegovina," made the selection of the most favorable bidder by choosing the legal entity SV-RSA d.o.o. Sarajevo, owned by the accused Neven Kulenović, as the most favorable bidder, even though the said legal entity was ranked third according to the recommendation of the public procurement commission, thereby acting contrary to the provisions of Article 35, paragraph 2 of the Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 14, paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Instructions on the Application of the Law on Public Procurement of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for which actions the accused Neven Kulenović, as owner and deputy director of the legal entity SV-RSA d.o.o. Sarajevo, gave a gift that they had previously agreed upon, namely through successive payments to the account of Zoran Bakula in the amount of 386,256.86 KM and to the account of Stipe Prlić in the amount of 331,513.18 KM, which gift the accused Zoran Bakula and Stipe Prlić received in such a way that it was paid to them from the account of the legal entity "3 Media Limited" registered in Gibraltar, in which the accused Neven Kulenović is the attorney with general and special power of attorney.

This is the first indictment filed in the Gibraltar case since October 2014, when the owners of marketing agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina were arrested in the operation of the same name by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).