The Constitutional Court on Thursday did not hold a hearing on Fimi Media advertising company owner Nevenka Jurak's appeal against a Zagreb County Court decision to extend her detention.
Jurak's attorney Kresimir Vilajtovic said the Constitutional Court informed him that it had all the documents required to decide on Jurak's constitutional appeal and that a hearing was not necessary.
The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) suspects Jurak of having illegally made about HRK 16.5 million by doing business with state-owned companies. She has been in custody since early August and in mid-September detention was extended for another two months.
Jurak's appeal argues that the extended detention violates her constitutional rights to a fair trial and equality before the law.
Vilajtovic said he did not know when the Constitutional Court would decide on the appeal, but that it should be done by November 9, when Jurak's detention ends.
After she filed the appeal, the media began speculating that Jurak actually wants to talk about the siphoning of money from state-owned companies and ministries, although after being arrested she dismissed accusations of having conspired with her associates to collect fictitious bills.
Her other counsel, Ivo Farcic, has dismissed speculation that Jurak wants a suspended sentence, but said it would be bad if she stood mute throughout the proceedings.
A former director of the HEP power company, Ivan Mravak, and Croatian Forests management board member Darko Beuk spoke to USKOK about the Fimi Media case.
On September 30, a former customs chief and treasurer of the ruling HDZ party, Mladen Barisic, was taken into custody. According to unofficial reports, witnesses have said he is the main culprit in the case and have allegedly also accused former PM Ivo Sanader, who attended a government meeting with Barisic at which public companies' executives were told to hire Fimi Media.
Barisic, a friend of Jurak's, is suspected of siphoning more than HRK 40 million from public companies and ministries via Fimi Media, part of which ended up in the HDZ.
His attorneys have dismissed media allegations that he reached an agreement with USKOK or that he accused former and current senior government and HDZ officials. However, they would not say that he will not do so once he appears before USKOK investigators.
