Zagreb: Former Assistant Minister Detained for One Month

(Patria) - The Zagreb court has ordered a one-month detention for the former assistant to the Croatian Minister of Culture, Davor Trupković, who was arrested yesterday for corruption at the request of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

The former dean and professor at the Faculty of Geodesy in Zagreb, Almin Đapo, and Boško Pribičević, suspected of giving Trupković a bribe of 39,000 euros in connection with the assessment of damage to cultural heritage sites damaged in the 2020 earthquake, were released with restraining orders prohibiting them from approaching and communicating with witnesses.

Trupković was ordered into pre-trial detention due to the risk of influencing witnesses, HRT reports.

"The court has established the existence of a well-founded suspicion against all three defendants," said delegated European prosecutor Vjekoslav Tolnaj.

They were arrested yesterday as part of an investigation at the Faculty of Geodesy for overpaying for work in assessing damage after the earthquake and were questioned at the European Public Prosecutor's Office, where they presented their defense.

European prosecutors suspect Trupković of having received a bribe of 39,000 euros and a smartwatch as head of the team for the inspection and identification of damaged buildings, in order to engage the Faculty of Geodesy in the tasks of inventory and damage assessment of immovable cultural property, which included three-dimensional documentation of the damage.

As an official in the Ministry of Culture and Media, he knew that the Faculty of Geodesy did not have sufficiently trained staff or equipment to perform such tasks and that a commercial company would have to be engaged for this purpose, Croatian media report.

The Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media paid the Faculty of Geodesy over 2.5 million euros, and an amount of approximately 800,000 euros was booked against the EU Solidarity Fund.

It is believed that overpaying for work due to inflated prices caused damage to Croatia's budget of over one million euros, and due to poorly performed work and, in some cases, the absence of 3D scans, these tasks had to be re-performed by other companies, leading to additional costs.