Former Croatian minister Božidar Kalmeta was sentenced on Friday at the Zagreb County Court to a partially suspended sentence of two and a half years, of which he must spend 10 months in prison, due to corruption in the retrial for the HAC-Towker and Traffic Renaissance of Croatia scandals.
In addition to 10 months in Kalmeti prison, according to the non-final verdict, the rest of the sentence will be conditional with a probationary period of four years, and he must return 81,000 euros to the state.
In addition to Kalmeta, a minister in the governments of Ivo Sanader and Jadranka Kosor, Damir Kezele was also sentenced to two years of partially suspended sentence for corruption committed twenty years ago, and will have to spend six months in prison.
Exonerated former associates and leaders
The court acquitted Kalmeta’s former associates and leaders of road companies Zdravko Livaković, Milivoj Mikulić, Stjepko Boban, and Stanko Vukelić.
All of them previously rejected the guilt of corrupt agreements and extracting money, and they also disputed the illegitimate property benefit that was charged to them in the amended Uskoko indictment.
According to the amended indictment, Kalmet was accused by Uskok of embezzling slightly more than 220,000 euros, while during the previous two trials he was charged with improper use of more than half a million euros.
Kalmet was previously accused by Uskok of having received part of around one and a half million euros extracted from road companies through the company Remorker, whose owner, Igor Premilovac, admitted that he withdrew the money through his foreign company and, with a retained commission, returned it “in his hands”.
He was also convicted for making a film for political propaganda
The last indictment accused Kalmet of having, as a minister, enabled his then state secretary Livaković to illegally receive over 1.4 million euros from the extracted money.
The former Croatian minister, who was also the mayor of Zadar for many years, was also convicted due to accusations that he ordered the production of the film “Transport Renaissance of Croatia” from the company Fimi media for the needs of the Ministry of Transport for the purposes of political publicity, which damaged the state budget by 81,247 euros.
The retrial took place after the Supreme Court in September 2022 overturned the illegal acquittal of Kalmeta, who, among other things, was accused of sharing more than HRK 15 million and EUR 850,000 from road maintenance and construction companies with his associates.
(TYPE/Source: Fena/Photo: HRT/Tomislav Miletić)
