Source: Avaz.ba
Photo: Neven Kulenović
Former leaders of HT Eronet, Stipe Prlić and Zoran Bakula, were acquitted of charges of abuse of office or authority and bribery in the Gibraltar case, which was conducted before the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In addition to Prlić and Bakula, charges were also dropped against the director of marketing agency SV-RSA Neven Kulenović.
Lawyer of Stipe Prlić, Senka Nožica, said that this verdict was expected, while Vasvija Vidović, lawyer of Neven Kulenović, added that, even though this is a first-instance verdict, the defendants and their families already had their lives destroyed because of someone’s very sloppy work at Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
“The Prosecutor’s Office came into this unprepared, with poor evidence and sloppy research. The expert devalued the indictment. Kulenović allegedly gave a bribe for a twice lower benefit in return. There’s no logic in that. This superficial work has destroyed families and inflicted damage. But this is the first instance verdict. We will see what will happen next,” said Vidović.
To recall, the Court of BiH, on 21 May last year confirmed the indictment against Stipe Prlić and Zoran Bakula, charging them with having committed a criminal offense of Abuse of Office and the criminal offense of Accepting Gifts and Other Benefits, and Neven Kulenovic for having committed the criminal offense of Giving Gifts and Other Benefits.
The indictment alleges that Prlić, as a CEO and President of the Board of Public Enterprise Hrvatske Telekomunikacije Mostar, and Bakula, as a member of the Board of that company, in the context of the procurement procedure, chose legal entity owned by Kulenović, although, as recommended by the Commission for Public Procurement, his company was third in the ranking.
Kulenović, according to the indictment, gave a gift that had been pre-agreed, in successive payments to Bakula’s account in the amount of 386,256 BAMM, and to Prlić’s account in the amount of 331,513 KM.
The money was paid from the account of a legal entity 3 Media Limited, registered in Gibraltar, to which Kulenović is a proxy.
