Croatia: Corruption and Money Laundering Scandal in Pictures — Hypo Alpe Adria Bank

25 04 2013

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Croatia: Corruption and Money Laundering Scandal in Pictures — Hypo Alpe Adria Bank





Domagoj Margetic, a EU Parliament Speech re Croatian Corruption & Money Laundering (4/23/13)

23 04 2013

When I was just a teenager, my father, who was a COO at Privredna Banka Zagreb came home one day proclaiming that he has no other choice but to quit his job as an executive.  “The rulling party is making me sign illegal papers transferring large amounts of money,” he said in early 1991.   He quit his job that winter.  By June 1991, there was a civil war in the Former Yugoslavia.   Some other coworkers of his did not quit their jobs, and this is what begun happening in Croatia.

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Please watch Domagoj Margetic’s speech and questions and answers session on this day, April 23, 2013.  This is the day, when the sun started shining and wrongs were unveiled.

Speech at the European Parliament, on April 23, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/embed/IzkSjogx1hE

Questions & Answers Session at the European Parliament, on April 23, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/embed/C7lvsZFBxDo





Croatian Journalists Self-Censor Themselves (U.S. 2012 Human Rights Report)

22 04 2013

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Picture:  Born in 1963, Lebanese-Iraqi cartoonist Hassan Bleibel publishes in several Middle-Eastern newspapers including Lebanon’s Al-Mustaqbal and As-Safir, and Egypt’s Al-Ahram.  His work has also featured in the western press – in Le Monde and Courrier International in France, and also in the International Herald Tribune.

The below write up is taken from the 2012 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights. Issued: April, 2013.

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

The constitution and law generally provide for freedom of speech and the press; however, growing economic pressures led journalists to practice self-censorship. Specifically, a number of journalists reported that publishers and media owners feared they would lose advertisers and frequently practiced self-censorship in reporting on advertisers or those linked politically to them. Direct government efforts to influence the media were occasionally reported at the local level.

Freedom of Speech: The law provides for no less than six months’ and no more than five years’ imprisonment for hate speech. Hate speech committed over the Internet is punishable by six months’ to three years’ imprisonment. While freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution, the criminal code sanctions individuals who act “with the goal of spreading racial, religious, sex, national, ethnic hatred or hatred based on the color of skin or sexual orientation or other characteristics.”

On November 6, the Supreme Court ruled that Vlatko Markovic, former president of the country’s football federation, must publicly apologize for calling homosexuals “unhealthy” and for proclaiming that he would never allow a homosexual player in his league. Markovic subsequently apologized. A court in Zagreb rejected the case in 2011, but LGBT activists appealed to the Supreme Court.

Freedom of Press: Many private newspapers and magazines were published without government interference. However, according to a May declaration from the Croatian Journalists Association (CJA), media ownership was not fully transparent; some business and political interests concealed their influence on media outlets. CJA President Zdenko Duka said in a September 16[, 2012] interview that the country’s National Security Council had done little to reveal the identity of media owners.

The law regulates the national television and radio networks separately from other electronic media. Independent television and radio stations operated in the country, and two of the four national television channels were privately owned and independent. There were no reports of the government influencing these outlets via advertising revenue. Local governments partly or fully owned approximately 70 percent of the local broadcast media, making them particularly vulnerable to political pressure. Approximately 46 percent of local radio stations depended on local authorities for financial support.

Minister of Internal Affairs Ranko Ostojic announced on December 21[,2012} that an internal police investigation uncovered police misconduct in the 2011 surveillance of journalists, including the editor in chief of national daily newspaper Jutarnji list. According to Ostojic’s statement, the country’s former police chief ordered the operation to determine the source of leaked information from corruption investigations against former prime minister Ivo Sanader. Ostojic turned over the results of the investigation to the Prosecutor’s Office. On December 13, the CJA called for an investigation into the case stating, “If Croatia is to be a democratic country, then its leaders must not allow journalists to be followed and tapped in the course of their professional activities. It is necessary to step up civil control of the police and secret services.”

Libel Laws/National Security: Libel is a criminal offense. During the year there were no reports of politically motivated libel cases being filed. A large number of earlier libel cases remained unresolved due to judicial backlogs. Courts may fine, but not imprison, persons convicted of slander and libel.

Internet Freedom

There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports the government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. According to December 2011 statistics from Internet World Stats, there were 2,656,089 Internet users, representing 59.2 percent of the population.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.





Who is Domagoj Margetic? Celebrating Independent Journalism in Croatia.

4 04 2013

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Many are wondering as to who is Domagoj Margetic. Clicking on his Wikipedia page in Croatia does not help. Wikipedia page has been bugged, and every effort to change the wording on the page has failed.

Domagoj Margetic is a Croatian investigative journalist with a long list of references presented below currently fighting for the protection under law for whistleblowers in Croatia. Domagoj is striking with hunger for 25th day, in hopes that the President of Crotatia Ivo Josipovic will push through the law. It would be a nice thing of the President to do, considering that Croatia is slated to become part of the European Union in July 2013. The President promised to do this exactly one year ago in 2012. Nothing has been done, to date. And why not hold him accountable?

Domagoj Margetic’s biography is hereby enclosed. Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for his cause.

From 2012 to 2013, with whistleblowers, Domagoj Margetic participated in the initiative to pass the legislation related to whistleblower protection in Croatia. The initiative was supported and accepted by the President Ivo Josipovic, at a meeting held on March 20, 2012.

From 2011 to 2013, Domagoj Margetic has been an independent, freelance columnist of regional business portal SEEbiz.eu

In 2012, Domagoj Margetic researched and published the papers on the Hypo Group affair in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 2012, Domagoj Margetic wrote about the corruption and crime in the Croatian Post.

From 2010 through 2012, Domagoj Margetic wrote about crime and corruption in the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance, Customs and published a feuilleton about the Mafia, which is why he was awarded a prize for fighting corruption by the Independent Union of Customs of Croatia.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.

From 2006 through 2012, Margetic was a founder and a chief of investigative journalism portal Necenzurirano.com, which, according to Google’s report in 2009, was widely read among the portals in the category of political news web-sites. The research related to Hypo scandal and former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in 2009 year was the most widely read text on the Internet in Croatia.

In 2011, Domagoj Margetic published a study on the murder of Ivo Pukanic in the book “The Case Pukanic: Murder with a Signature of the State.”

In 2011 Margetic published a book of poems called “I Forgive Heaven your Smile.”

In 2011 Domagoj Margetic was the author of the analysis “Kosovo and the new Balkan Criminal Order.”

In 2010, Margetic researched and published papers on illegal privatization of the tobacco industry in Croatia, Zagreb Tobacco Factory and creation of semi-mafia tobacco monopoly in the Balkans.

In 2010. Margetic researched and wrote a feuilleton about the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

In 2010, as an investigative journalist who was engaged in anti-corruption issues and topics of organized crime, Domagoj Margetic was appointed a member of the project team administrator of Database on Persons Connected with Terrorism and Organized crime TOC Data Base, a project run by two faculties of the University of Belgrade.

In 2010, Margetic published documents on the misappropriation of money in the Croatian Highways (HAC) for building highways in Croatia. The State Attorney’s Office heard the case on corruption.

In 2010 Domagoj Margetic revealed the location of the multi-year hiding of convicted war criminal Miljenko Bajic, who was ultimately arrested and detained for a custodial sentence for war crimes against Serbian prisoners in Lora, Split.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.

From 2009 through 2011 Margetic published a study on corruption, conflict of interest and links to organized crime of Tomislav Karamarko, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of Croatia.

In 2009, Margetic published in full the Hypo secret file of money laundering through the Hypo Alpe Adria Group.

In 2009, Domagoj Margetic revealed documents which prove the conflict of interest by the Minister of Justice at that time.

In 2008, Domagoj Margetic published documents on the connection between Prime Minister Ivo Sanader with the Hypo affair, which the State Attorney’s Office took over from Margetic in April, 2008. Resultantly, the former prime-minister Ivo Sanader was suspected, accused and convicted for corruption and war profiteering.

From 2008 through 2012, Margetic closely co-operated with Verica Barac, renowned fighter against corruption in Serbia, the longtime president of the Council for the Fight Against Corruption of the Government of Serbia.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.

From 2004 through 2008, Margetic had been publishing articles, studies and documents about the secret accounts of the Ministry of Finance, through which the money from the State Budget was being drawn.

In 2008, Margetic authored the book “The Banking Mafia” about laundering of money through domestic and foreign banks, previously looted from the Croatian state budget or state-owned enterprises.

In 2008, Domagoj Margetic published a study on the tobacco mafia in Croatia, on the international cigarette smuggling that is connected to Rovinj Tobacco Factory and Adris Group, and at that time a number of documents were published on the topic.

In 2008, Margetic wrote about the case NAMA, transformation- privatization crime in this company and the way the people in that company associated with the government pulled multimillion amounts to private accounts.

In 2008, Domagoj Margetic released documents on international smuggling of nuclear materials through Croatia in the 1990s.

In 2008, Margetic participated in a regional initiative of experts from Serbia, BIH and Croatia in the establishment of the Expert Team of Southeast Europe to combat terrorism and organized crime.

In 2008, Margetic discovered and published secret documents about the secret war affairs of Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

In 2007, Domagoj Margetic published documents about the war crimes of the Croatian police against Serbian civilians in Sisak in years 1991 and 1992, about which Margetic testified at the Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes in Belgrade.

In 2007, Margetic published a study on the secret documents of the Croatian National Bank on the recovery of banks in Croatia, and published secret information on how much the state invested in recovery of the banks from the National budget and compared this data with the data on the amount for which the bank later sold to the new owners.

In 2007, Margetic released a video testimony of the participants of the international cocaine smuggling Croatia and an insider testimony that the General Ivan Cermak smuggled 20 kg of cocaine through Croatia.

In 2007, Margetic published a study on the secret documents of the Croatian National Bank related to the privatization of banks in Croatia.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.

In 2006, Domagoj Margetic was the author of the book of poems “Exposing.”

In 2006, Domagoj Margetic was the author of the study, “Transition Fraud.”

In 2006, Domagoj Margetic wrote “Journalism Between Crime, Corruption, Prostitution and Media.”

In 2005, Margetic’s books “Who Robbed Croatia” and “The Unauthorized Biography of the Second Croatian President.” The two books were included in the official list of references Berkeley University, East European Department, with titles from Eastern Europe and on Eastern Europe.

In 2004, Domagoj Margetic wrote “The Unauthorized Biography of the Second Croatian president.”

In 2004, Margetic exposed the secret documents of the national oil industry, INA’s, on international smuggling of Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan oil through the INA, with which a part of the state leaders in Croatia were connected.

In 2004, Domagoj Margetic started researching the crime in the transformation and privatization of the largest banks in Croatia Zagreb Bank (Zagrebačka banka, ZABA), Zagreb.

In 2003, Margetic published in its entirety, “Dajmanović’s petition”, the document on crime and corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia.

In 2003, Margetic published a full secret file Villach, the secret bank accounts of the Government in the Austrian Erste Bank in Villach and documents about how the senior officials of the Croatian Democratic Party HDZ drew funds from those secret accounts to private accounts abroad.

In 2003 Margetic published a secret file of the Government on demise of the Istrian Bank and drawing of the money through the bank.

From 2001 through 2003 Margetic had been researching corruption and criminal in the Government, and in 2003, and as a result of research, his book “Who Robbed Croatia?” was published.

In 2001, Margetic revealed the Hypo secret file of Ministry of Finance, the secret documents from the investigation of the Exchange Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance on crime and money laundering in the Hypo Group.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.

In 2000, Margetic wrote about banking crime in Croatia and the money draw through secret accounts from Croatian banks, and exposed the secret documents on privatization of the Zagreb Bank (Zagrebačka banka ZABA), the Commercial Bank Zagreb (Privredna banka Zagreb), the Dubrovnik Bank (Dubrovačka banka), the Istrian Bank (Istarska Banka) and the Dalmatian Bank (Dalmatinska Banka).

In 1999 Domagoj Margetic started researching the Hypo affair.

In 1997, Domagoj Margetic wrote an open letter to the Croatian president Franjo Tudjman on corruption and organized crime in Tudjman’s Government, and in this letter he revealed corruption in Croatian Electrics (Hrvatska Elektroprivreda), and a way of enriching of the prime minister on behalf of the Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ), which were appointed by Franjo Tudjman, through the extraction of money from the national budget and unlawful acquisition of shares by state-owned enterprises in the transformation and privatization.

Domagoj Margetic wrote about the corruption and crime in the transformation and privatization in Croatia from 1997 to 2000.

Support investigative journalism on change.org by petitioning for Domagoj Margetic’s cause.





Something is Rotten in the State of Croatia

3 04 2013

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Croatia is a small, beautiful country sitting at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, with a beautiful serene Adriatic Sea coast that contains more than a thousand islands.  It has a high potential for development. It also has a very high development index, where life expectancy, literacy, education are high (high levels of income are disputable).  Yet, in this 20th Century, there was a bloody war that Croatia was involved in …

Less than ten years ago, in 1995, when all stakeholders of the war in the Former Yugoslavia, including Croatia what, exhausted by infighting, forgot to do – is to deal with forgiveness, despite the close living proximity to those they declared enemies.  Reconciliation is imperfect, but it is necessary. And this incidentally is a rotten part of Croatian development as a state where freedom of speech is restricted, where no political figures have taken up courage to deal with truth, and where there is no division between politics and private sector development.  As the matter of fact, reading the below referenced 2010 report from Amnesty International one can extrapolate that the Croatian government leadership since 1995 has been full of war profiteers.

Longer the truth is closeted, more rotten it is going to continue to be in the State of Croatia. Croatia, however, can thank independent journalism for bringing that much needed truth up on the surface.  Why, every war begins because of money, but in the Balkans people have been duped to believe that it is because of ethnic hatred.  So they continue to hate.

Thankfully, the profiteering and monetary flows have best been described by Hypo Affair uncovered and documented, by an investigative journalist Domagoj Margetic (Sign Change.org petition to support Domagoj.  So now, they can stop hating.  But they don’t.

Indirectly, what Margetic has begun is inklings of Truth Reconciliation Commission, whose members are himself and a clan of dedicated truth seekers across the Balkans.   Incidentally, the ‘truth seeker’ is on Hunger Strike because he is Black Listed by the Croatian Government.

It is safe to say that on the top of Croatian pyramid known as Hypo Group Alpe Adria Affair (there is an Austrian scandal associated with this bank as well), one can find involvement of three political parties led by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Croatian Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS).

According to Margetic’s research (please watch the video with English subtitles) and documents that he has in possession about EUR 100 Million of Former Yugoslavian money, half of which belonging to Croatia,  have been laundered and about 200 elite Croatian families have gotten rich as a result of this.   An example is provided of Ivo Sanader.

Margetic’s investigative journalism brought down Ivo Sanader, former Croatian prime minister and the former president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).  Sanader has allegedly received nearly $700,000 in bribes by Hypo Group Alpe Adria Bank for arranging a loan in 1995.  He has been accused of war profiteering, and has also been accused of receiving EUR 10 million in bribes from the CEO of the Hungarian oil company MOL, Zsolt Hernádi, to secure MOL a dominant position in the Croatian oil company INA.  This pyramid scandal has everyone involved.

Just ask Domagoj Margetic, and he will give you 20+ names of major politicians, 35+ names of major tycoons and other key people involved in the Hypo affair.

Why isn’t Margetic publishing a book about all of this?  He has.  His book, “The Banking Mafia” was written in 2008, topics include:

  1. Money transfers to Liechtenstein  through the Hypo bank;
  2. Ivo Sanader disposed with illicit funds Hypo bank loans in 1995
  3. Money laundering at the Hypo Bank;
  4. Government participated in money laundering through the Hypo bank
  5. Croatian government shares responsibility for the criminal in Hypo Bank
  6. Whom did the bank grant secret loans to?
  7. Laundering of more than 11 billion through the Hypo Bank illegally increased external debt of the Republic of  Croatia;
  8. Fictitious loans granted by the Hypo Bank Klagenfurt served as a cover for money laundering;
  9. Money laundering with the long-term foreign currency bank deposits of the Hypo Hypo Bank  Klagenfurt with the Hypo Bank Zagreb;
  10. Through supplementary capital the Hypo bank Zagreb laundered over 200 million euros;
  11. Hypo bank in Croatia laundered money through related person transactions;
  12. Through secret foreign accounts in foreign banks, Hypo Bank Zagreb laundered around 500 million euros;
  13. Hypo bank through The Slavonian Bank (Slavonska Banka)  increased Croatian foreign debt by more than 301 million euros;
  14. Criminal report for money laundering and concealment of illicit money in Slavonian Bank (Slavonska banka);
  15. The Croatian National Bank provided money laundering by the Hypo Bank through the Slavonian Bank (Slavonska Banka)

Below, you will read about inability of political elite to deal with the legacy of the war, including war profiteering.

Unfortunately this has been the case with a large chunk of Croatian people.  Domagoj Margetic has been called a Serbian agent, a follower of Serbian World War II monarchist paramilitary army (‘cetniks’), etc.

The lack of political elite to release information, provide apologies, establish whistle blowing laws for the companies (which are sometimes government-owned, and at other times formerly government-owned) and media (support a Petition to Establish a Whistleblowing Law in Coratia) is affecting Croatian people drawing them into ‘group-think.’  Croatian elite has done very well in psychologically controlling the masses.

This is why smart, free and independent journalists, like Domagoj Margetic, find themselves on the brink of starvation.  Whereby in America, he would be earning millions of dollars from his investigative journalism work, in Croatia Margetic, will be allowed to starve to death.

Now back to Amnesty International report issued in 2010 (three years ago).  While some references may be outdated, facts and recommendations provided remain, and they call as does this blog post for some serious thought to Croatia needing to belong on international human rights watch.

In 2010, Amnesty International issued a report on Croatia, confirming that while they have no position on whether the Republic of Croatia should or should not be accepted as a member of the EU or any other international organizations, they did confirm that:

  • The accession process into the European Union is “a good opportunity for Croatia to improve its human rights record by complying with the highest human rights standards.”
  • Having said that, the organization continued to be concerned that measures that have been implemented in Croatia did not translate into tangible effects.

While the majority of the report deals with Croatia’s handling of the war crimes, Amnesty International was particularly concerned with:

  • Ethnic bias in sentencing
  • Failure to prosecute war crimes in accordance with international standards,
  • Failure to enforce all relevant legislation providing for the protection of witnesses (in the courtroom and outside, witness support services),
  • Failure to make judges, prosecutors and lawyers fully aware of international obligations in the field of human rights; and most of all
  • The lack of political will in Croatia to deal with the legacy of the war.

And this is the ‘rotten’ part where the focus of this blog post will be placed.

How are politicians not dealing with past?

  • There is the lack of political will to prosecute war crimes cases in Croatia and the failure of the authorities to make it their priority
  • When the three Croatian Army generals (Ante Gotovina, Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač)  were awaiting their trial in The Hague, the government of Croatia, instead of distancing itself from the case, asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in September 2006 to be allowed to act in the capacity of amicus curiae in the case.  They were rejected.  This makes everyone externally extrapolate that Croatian government is full of war profiteers.
  • The failure of the authorities to provide the ICTY with all the relevant military documents related to the 1995 Operation Storm
  • In his last report to the UN Security Council in November 2009, the ICTY Chief Prosecutor stated that “since the previous report to the Security Council […] no substantial progress has been made in locating a number of key military documents related to Operation Storm of 1995, which the Office of the Prosecutor had first requested in 2007.”   As of April, 2010, when this Amnesty International document was written, no documents were not provided
  • Amnesty International was extremely concerned about the political involvement by some of the highest officials in the country, in the case of Branimir Glavas, Member of the Croatian Parliament, preventing the course of justice, whereby Government waived his detention during prosecution.  On the day of the verdict, the accused fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which citizenship he acquired in the meantime.  Based on the agreement on mutual execution of criminal sanctions between Croatia and Bosnia, Glavas was finally arrested in Bosnia on September 28, 2010.    His seven medals were taken away.
  • As was the case with 2010 President of Croatia’s apology to Bosnia in the Bosnian Parliament of Bosnia, Croatian parties took that apology back in the weeks to follow
  • As a result, political figures are undermining efforts to ensure reparation for all victims of the wars.

Possible solutions proposed by Amnesty International:

  • Amnesty International recommends that calls on Croatia to, in line with the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, undertake immediate efforts to grant the victims the right to reparation, including an official apology, for the war crimes which, beyond any doubt and as confirmed by the ICTY, have been committed by the Croatian military and political officials.

“Amnesty International urges leading officials in the country to refrain from making statements which undermine efforts to guarantee the right to remedy and reparation, as enshrined in international law, including an official apology.”

  • “The organization calls on the government of Croatia to show true commitment to prosecute all war crimes irrespective of the ethnicity of those responsible for war crimes and their victims.”




Croatia a Banana State: in Which the Most Underaknowledged Asset is the Truth. Domagoj Margetic, Strikes with Hunger Day 22.

1 04 2013

Dear Friends,

with your signature please give support to Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetić who is on hunger strike since 11th of march 2013.  Please:

From Domagoj Margetic, investigative journalist

”This is my last attempt to set through my example to point out the extremely difficult existential and professional position in which Croatia’s investigative journalists have found themselves. We sought to open cases and corruption scandals, which, because of their political background and because high-profile corruption which are networked institutions in this country, and to a certain political party, never should be published.

So my fault and some of my colleagues is very clear: we wrote what was forbidden to write, we provide the public access to information that never should have become public. In short, we wrote and spoke about the forbidden truths. It is publicly known that I was the one of the first investigative journalist who researched, wrote and discovered some of the biggest corruption scandals in Croatia: Hypo scandal, political corruption in the Customs; Affair HAC; Case Soboli; Affair INA and smuggling oil through INA, cigarette smuggling, tobacco mafia and illegal conversion and privatization of TDZ and TDR; Case U.S.; Case Geotechnical Engineering; case secret bank accounts in Villach, Case of secret bank accounts at Privredna Banka; war crimes cases: Sijekovac, Brod, Mrkonjic Grad and Sisak; Affair on illegal conversions, privatization and illegal operations of the Bank of Zagreb, as well as cases of the Croatian Post, Croatian Postal Bank and the Bank of Dubrovnik.

I am an Author of thirteen publishing books on topics of great corruption scandals and investigations of organized crime, most notably, “Who robbed Croatia?” (2003.), “Banking Mafia” (2008.), and “The Case Pukanic: Murder with states signature”(2011).  Still, of all the scandals that I’ve revealed and have written about, the biggest is Hypo scandal, international bankingscandal, in which there is documented evidence presented, the money trail from the Croatian secret accounts abroad, primarily in Austria and Lichtenstein, under control of members of the political and economic elite from Croatia; some documents from Hypo scandal reveals the amount that reaches 47.7 billion euros. It is also known that I’ve, as an investigative journalist, first submitted documentation Attorney General’s Office on the case of Hypo – Mr Ivo Sanader– former Croatian prime Minister, back in April 2008. After that he had been under investigation, then filed charges and ultimately convicted with a criminal offense of war profiteering.

I had conceded all of mine research documents not only to investigating authorities, the police, the State Attorney’s Office and USKOK, but also the National Anti-Corruption Council in Parliament at the time the panel chaired by Dr. Zeljko Jovanovic and to investigative bodies of Austria who research Hypo scandal; I had worked closely with the late president of the Council for the Fight against Corruption Prime Minister Verica Barac.

I’ve worked as a journalist solely in the public interest, so that the citizens who are affected by the information that I have researched, ensure the availability of data and documents about some of the biggest corruption scandals in modern Croatia, Hypo scandal and many consider the largest banking scandal in Europe after the Second World War.  I have often worked against in a detriment of my personal interests and my family, to inform the public about my journalistic research. In the same time I had met with corruption deals, those strongmen who have learned to silence the media, who can buy and pay everyone.

So they had offered me money for journalistic silence and cessation ofjournalistic research as representatives of the Hypo Bank, representatives of one of the tobacco industry, representatives of the Bank of Zagreb and, when they realized that I would not accept any amount that they offered me, it was followed by the threat of very powerful individuals, institutions and companies in Croatia. Along with those whose bids or offers to pay for my silence declined, with the help of the media in which they are paid “marketing services”, and with the help of journalists and editors who they kept on its black payroll, they started a campaign of where the main objective was to discredit me as a man and as a journalist; they were written and published numerous articles and offended me with various accusations, lies and slander, to discredited me in public as much as possible, my journalist questionable authenticity.

So the media and journalists, who’ve often been involved directly or indirectly in the Hypo affair or other corruption cases, ran against me a dirty campaign for years in behalf of the mafia and corrupt politicians. On the other hand, those of whom I wrote about in this country, controlling everything from cash flow, the economy,politics, institutions, and the media, and since that I have not agreed to the settlement and haven’t made a deal with them because I did not agree to stop research and write about these corruption scandals, they have clearly made itknown that they would destroy me existentially if I won’t shut up, and if I won’t withdraw.

At first, I did not believe that they are so powerful and influential that they could deny me any journalistic work in Croatia, but eventually I realized that they control virtually everything. Very soon I found myself on the black list of journalists that Croatia must not allow to work, therefore, on the black list of journalists that no media in Croatia must not be employed. I knocked on the door of the editorial office and the media, but everywhere I’ve got the same answer, “ you’re on the black list, for you anywhere in Croatia there is no job!”

Some of my colleagues were smarter, they would take the offered money, kept quiet about the affair, and today are prized journalists who don’t have to worry about their existence nor their family. I was obviously stupid, because I refused to take money in exchange for the silence. Because, in this society, in this country, in journalism, most tariffs are for the silence, and the lowest tariff for the truth. I obviously didn’t understand at the time.

Capital of the major media in this country, is actually one way or another suspected criminal origin, about which I discovered many traces such as in my research Hypo scandal, in which involved are practically all the big media companies, their owners, or their leaders, and the media only served as a large laundry of dirty money stolen from the Croatian transition nineties. So even today, it is not advisable to explore the origins of capital in our media, and because research Hypo scandal, it is logical that I’m in all the media associated in any way with this scandal among the first names on journalistic blacklists.

Because of my research I ended up on the blacklist of the public broadcaster HRT, and it was no secret that I’m on the list of prohibited persons to HRT, or on the list of banned visits and participation in any of the shows on the channel of HRT. Besides, I am exposed to many other, judicial, police, security and intelligence pressures, to keep me shut up and stop in my journalistic research, primarily in research and writing about the Hypo scandal. And now I’m finally left on the street without any source of income, or no funds for normal existence. In other words, after all the scandals that Iuncovered, I was left to myself, no job, no income, no existential security.

That’s’ the way how the corrupt politicians and criminals, their interests and networked connections, managed to get revenge for what I wrote about and published. I have no longer any means of livelihood, and in fact, the more I have no choice which means I fight for my journalistic rights, I will announce that within ten days at a public place in Zagreb, I’m starting a hunger strike to defend my journalistic rights; primarily my right that criminal power centers in this country don’t silence me with their mafia, corruption, criminal methods. They want me to die in silence of starvation, it’s their revenge for my journalistic work.

Therefore I will starve in public, and what have happened to me, fall of conscience to all of you. If I was silent about corruption, if I like many others traded with information and documents, today I would have no financial problems and would not be forced to this letter, nor the public hunger strike. The lie is that the country and state institutions protect the rights of our journalists.

When we find major corruption scandals, our lives and our existence is not worth anything anymore. To the Mafia and the corrupt system we are an easy target to be removed, not always by physical liquidation, but worsen existence and sophisticated methods of silencing. One by one, while not silence us all, because you let them do it. Today in Croatia can work and survive only those journalists who are doing what they are told. Those journalists who respect the forbidden topic, do not write about them and can not speak, which corresponds to the owners of their media, sponsors, or political and business circles whose interests the media represents and protects.

Most of the media in Croatia today do not work on the principles of journalistic ethics and codes of practice, rather on the principles of media racket and media crime, and major media outlets often actually serve as a criminal money laundry for suspicious investors and shareowners that hidden behind certain media, thus hiding from the public and a genuine interest in the existence and the activities of individual media. Above all, I demand that the process of proposing and adopting the whistleblower protection Law on corruption begin, which would protect journalists, who explore, discover, write and report on cases of corruption and organized crime. If such a law was passed on time, it would not be possible to become an investigative journalist and banned just because I discovered and wrote about the corruption scandals that I mentioned earlier in the letter.

I demand that the institutions of the European Union continue to monitor the process of completing the requirements for membership of the Croatia, especially in regard to the protection of media freedom and whistleblower protection Law on corruption and organized crime. It would be desirable that the European Union reconsider accepting the Croatian membership until the conduct additional surveillance respect journalistic freedoms and rights, human rights and civil liberties, whistleblower protection Law on corruption and organized crime, who are citizens of Croatia in the third row, and in practice almost people with no rights. I demand from Croatian institutions to publicly answers why I am on “Black lists” of banned journalists, on what basis are set these criteria and how they prepare such black list of journalists? If such a black list does not exist, I demand that the state institutions plainly manifest in public recognition for journalistic research in uncovering corruption and organized crime in Croatia, which would have made it public knowledge that the “black lists” of disobedient journalists in this country has finally come to an end.

I demand that in Croatia I can be uninterrupted, uncensored investigative journalist to do my job, regardless of what political, financial, gangster, business, banking or other lobbies and groups I’m researching and writing, which is not the case for all the reasons that I have stated in a letter and that I can always argue further.

For all these reasons, on 11th March 2013. I begin a hunger strike in order not only to achieve the objectives set forth, but also pointed to the disastrous situation of media freedom in Croatia, especially when talking about independent investigative reporters who deal with major corruption scandals and investigation of organized crime. Such is to be silenced at all costs.

The goal is to silence us, so my hunger strike remained the only means to combat these forms of censure and restricting media freedom and rights.

I will continue with the hunger strike by fulfilling my demands.”

Domagoj Margetic, investigative journalist