Prosecutors accuse the suspects of “accepting and giving bribes, abuse of place and authority, and cash laundering.”
Croatia's prime minister has fired Well being Minister Vili Beros following his arrest on suspicion of corruption as a part of a European Union investigation.
“This morning, former minister Vili Beros and two different folks have been arrested as a part of an operation carried out” by anti-corruption officers, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic mentioned at a information convention on Friday.
“As prime minister, I’m personally horrified by the concept of anybody within the well being system utilizing their place for private enrichment or to favor another person throughout the well being system,” Plenkovic mentioned.
The European Public Prosecutor's Workplace (EPPO) within the capital Zagreb mentioned it had launched an investigation into eight folks, together with Beros and the administrators of two hospitals.
The EU's unbiased prosecutor's workplace accused the suspects, and two corporations, of “accepting and giving bribes, abuse of place and authority and cash laundering,” it mentioned in an announcement.
“Mr. Beros utterly denies any felony duty,” his lawyer Laura Vakovic informed reporters.
Plenkovic, who was re-elected in April, mentioned: “We, as a authorities, haven’t and won’t shield anybody from felony prosecution if they’re suspected of getting dedicated felony acts, no matter who they’re or what obligation they’ve.”
Between June 2022 and November 2024, 5 of the suspects tried to “get hold of improper monetary achieve” in a scheme involving the sale of medical robotic units to a number of hospitals in Croatia, prosecutors mentioned.
The suspects additionally supplied bribes to control the general public procurement course of, in keeping with the European Public Prosecutor's Workplace.
This was tried on a minimum of 4 events however didn’t work within the case of an EU-funded undertaking within the coastal metropolis of Break up, the place the bribe was rejected, prosecutors mentioned.
Within the different three instances, in a number of hospitals in Zagreb, “there are accusations that the Minister of Well being, in alternate for a bribe obtained, licensed the acquisition of surgical microscopes at unjustifiably inflated costs and supplied funds for public procurement.”
The worth was “unjustifiably elevated by [$654,000] to the detriment of the Croatian nationwide finances,” the prosecutors added.
Croatia's Workplace for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) confirmed the arrests with out figuring out the suspects.
Beros was appointed to the place after his predecessor, Milan Kujundzic, was fired in January 2020 for his ties to an undeclared belongings case.
Since taking energy in 2016, a number of ministers from the prime minister's conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) social gathering have resigned amid corruption allegations.
Croatia has had critical issues with political and systemic corruption. Total, worldwide anti-corruption teams rank it as probably the most corrupt states among the many 27 EU member international locations.