The Croatian Parliament on Thursday received a formal request from the former head of Customs Administration and treasurer of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Mladen Barisic, to activate his mandate as a member of Parliament and immediately suspend it again, the Parliament Speaker's spokeswoman Marina Buntic Juricic said.
According to Buntic, Barisic asked for the reactivation of his mandate in Parliament but would not take his seat because he asked to have his mandate put on hold again.
Barisic was elected as a member of the HDZ, but suspended his mandate because it was incompatible with his duties in the Finance Ministry as chief of the Customs Administration.
Barisic was recently relieved of his duties as chief of the Customs Administration after being suspected of malfeasance. He had eight days to apply for the reactivation of his term in parliament and did so a day before the expiry of the deadline.
The Credentials and Privileges Commission should now adopt a report approving the reactivation of his mandate and immediately putting his mandate on hold for at least six months.
Lawyers for Barisic said that their client would be questioned by investigators from the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) next week.
After he was arrested last week, Barisic did not present his defence.
Dismissing media speculations that Barisic entered into plea bargaining with investigators, lawyer Ante Madunic said his client had not given any statement so far and therefore media reports that he implicated some other people were untrue.
Madunic said that the exact date of Barisic's questioning by USKOK would be agreed on Monday.
Another lawyer for Barisic, Rajko Mlinaric, said that if his client and the investigators reach agreement, Barisic could be given a suspended sentence.
Barisic is suspected of siphoning off as much as 40 million kuna (5.5 million euros) from state-owned companies and government ministries for the benefit of the Fimi Media marketing firm owned by his longtime friend, Nevenka Jurak. He faces up to 15 years in prison if put on trial and convicted.
USKOK suspects that Fimi Media earned about 40 million kuna through fictitious and rigged tenders.
After the Fimi Media scandal began to unfold with the arrests of Jurak and her associate, Anita Loncar Tepes, in mid-August, USKOK said that they had illegally earned about 16.5 million kuna (2.2 million euros).
Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic on Thursday declined to comment on how far the investigation into Fimi Media had come.
"Much has been done," Bajic told reporters after the parliament's special session for Independence day, declining to be more specific on the probe.
