Zagreb, 16 July 2025 (Hina/MIA) - Croatia’s anti-corruption office USKOK said Wednesday it has issued an indictment before Zagreb County Court against former Health Minister Vili Beroš and seven co-defendants in a major corruption case involving the procurement of medical equipment.

The case centers on the alleged embezzlement of over EUR 740,000 from the state budget through inflated contracts, with Beroš personally accused of receiving EUR 75,000 in bribes.

Others named in the affair include: Hrvoje Petrač, a businessman who surrendered to Croatian authorities last week after eight months on the run, his sons Novica and Nikola Petrač, businessman Saša Pozder, former head of the Neurology Clinic at KBC Sestre Milosrdnice, Krešimir Rotim, Director of Zagreb’s Children’s Hospital, Goran Roić,and Tomo Pavić from the Krapina branch of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund.

Although USKOK did not release names in its official statement, it confirmed that the eight individuals are charged with conspiring to commit a range of offenses including: bribery, abuse of office, unlawful favoritism, influence peddling and money laundering, all within the context of organized crime.

After the Croatian anti-corruption office USKOK announced in November last year that it had arrested Beroš, Rotim and Pozder, the European Public Prosecutor's Office in Zagreb stated it had launched its own investigation into Beroš and seven other individuals.

Unlike USKOK, which suspects Beroš of influence peddling and did not initially mention the then-fugitive Petrač or his two sons, both of whom have since surrendered, EPPO had investigated Beroš for allegedly taking bribes.

USKOK, which requested pre-trial detention for Beroš and Pozder, while Rotim was released pending trial, claims the trio colluded to supply and sell medical devices made by an Austrian manufacturer to state-owned hospitals.

USKOK suspects that Pozder's company unlawfully gained nearly EUR 500,000, while EPPO alleges that the price of surgical microscopes was unjustifiably inflated by nearly EUR 620,000.

EPPO stated in November last year that it had handed the case over to USKOK.

However, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, in a letter to the European Commission, said Croatia's State Attorney General Ivan Turudić, who had previously ruled that USKOK, not EPPO, had jurisdiction over the case, had further aggravated the situation.

In May this year, Turudić said the investigation into Beroš and the other suspects was nearing completion and that a prosecutorial decision could be made by mid-July.

The Municipal Criminal State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb subsequently announced that it was investigating the leak of information from EPPO’s investigation, which was later merged with that of the Croatian prosecution.