The Municipal Criminal Court in Zagreb confirmed the indictment against former football player and television analyst Joško Jeličić for giving a false statement in the proceedings against Zdravko Mamić and others accused of extorting money from Dinamo Zagreb.
According to the indictment, Jeličić is accused of knowingly giving a false statement regarding the payment of a debt of 200,000 euros.
In the explanation of the decision on confirmation of the indictment, the court states that, based on an inspection of the file, it was established that there is a well-founded suspicion that Jeličić committed the criminal offense charged against him, in the manner described in the indictment.
The court rejected the defense’s claims that the indictment was “premature”, explaining that such a legal term does not exist in the Criminal Procedure Law.
The claim that the procedure for giving a false statement cannot be conducted before the end of the procedure in which the statement was given was also rejected. The court stated that such an attitude is against the law, because the credibility of the testimony can be determined in a special criminal proceeding.
In other words, the court pointed out that the question of whether the testimony was false is evaluated independently of the procedure in which it was given.
The indictment, filed in mid-February, states that in April 2016, as a witness in the criminal proceedings, Jeličić stated that he assigned his claim against a football club to two persons who paid him the agreed amount.
During an earlier hearing in USKOK, he stated that he received the 200,000 euros that Dinamo owed him based on the settlement from the British company Real Sports Management, owned by Marijo Mamić.
However, at the trial in the affair known as “Dinamo 2” before the County Court in Osijek in 2024, he changed his testimony. Then he said that he did not receive the money from the company, but from Zdravko Mamić himself, and explained that he had not told the truth earlier due to fear of possible criminal liability.
“Zdravko paid me 200,000 euros in cash in the club premises, in the presence of Damir Vrbanović, possibly Zoran Mamić, and my lawyer Krešimir Ćurković, after which I withdrew the lawsuit,” Jeličić said in court.
His defense appealed the indictment and asked for its dismissal, again stating that the proceedings were “premature” as the main case was still ongoing. The court rejected those allegations as well.
Joško Jeličić played for Dinamo twice, from 1993 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2002. Due to outstanding contractual obligations, he previously sued the club for the amount of 844,000 euros.
Today, he is known as an expert television commentator on the MAXSport channel, with whom, according to reports, he recently terminated cooperation after the indictment was filed, while he claims that this was due to pressure from certain football structures and fan organizations.
(Vijesti.ba)
