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 for extracting money from Dinamo.
The indictment charges him with knowingly giving false testimony about the payment of a debt from 200,000 euros.
In the explanation of the decision confirming the indictment, the Municipal Criminal Court states that, based on an inspection of the file, it assessed the indictment as well-founded, since from the evidence obtained reasonable suspicion arises that Jeličić committed criminal offense which was charged to him in the manner described in the indictment, it says Index.hr.
The court rejected the defense’s claim that the indictment was “premature” with the explanation that such a term does not exist at all in the Criminal Procedure Act.
He also rejected the claim that procedure for giving a false statement cannot lead before the end of the proceedings in which the testimony was given. The court states that this is against the law, because a false statement can be determined in a separate criminal proceeding. In other words, the court decides whether the testimony was false regardless of the procedure in which the testimony was given, the Municipal Criminal Court stated in its decision confirming the indictment against Jelićić.
Change of testimony at trial
The indictment, filed in mid-February, states that Jeličić in April 2016 as the witness lied in the criminal proceedings that he assigned his claim against a football club to two persons who paid him the agreed amount of money. Jeličić, namely, during the interrogation at USKOK that year, stated that he received 200,000 euros, which Dinamo owed him based on the settlement, from the English company Real Sports Management owned by Marijo Mamić.
However, at the trial of Mamić at the County Court in Osijek in 2024, in the affair known as Dinamo 2, he changed his testimony. Then he said that he did not receive that amount from any English or foreign company, but from Zdravko Mamić himself. He explained that earlier he was not telling the truth about the terms of the financial settlement with Dinamo because he was afraid of possible criminal liability.
Zdravko paid me EUR 200,000 in cash in the club premises in the presence of Damir Vrbanović, possibly Zoran Mamić, and my lawyer Krešimir Ćurković, and I withdrew the lawsuitJeličić said in court.
The defense asked for the dismissal of the indictment
His defense filed an appeal against the indictment and requested its rejection as “premature”, with the explanation that the criminal proceedings in which Jeličić gave the disputed testimony are still ongoing. However, the court rejected those allegations, concluding that the Criminal Procedure Law does not recognize the term “premature” indictment.
Joško Jeličić played for Dinamo twice, from 1993 to 1995 and after returning from abroad from 1997 to 2002. Due to unfulfilled contractual obligations, he sued the club for the amount of 844 thousand euros. Today, he is known to the public as an expert commentator on MAXSport television, from which he was fired a month ago, after the indictment was filed, while Jeličić claims that Hrvatski Telekom canceled cooperation due to pressure from Hajduk and the association Naš Hajduk.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Davor Javorovic/PIXSELL)
