We submitted a criminal report against the people responsible for the devastation of Mt. Medvednica where the damage and the deficit of 330,000 m³ of wood stock in the counter value of approx. 14 million euros was found.

January 29, 2020

We submitted the criminal charges for association, abuse and illegal and excessive deforestation on Mt. Medvednica to:

  • State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia
  • Marija Vučković, Minister of Agriculture
  • Tomislav Ćorić, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development
  • Andrija Mikulić, Chief State Inspector, State Inspectorate
  • Zdravko Marić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

The lawsuit was sent to the following adresses for inspection:

  • Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia
  • Lora Vidović, Office of the Ombudsman
  • Dražen Jelenić, then Chief State Attorney

Of all the mentioned above, we received feedback only from the Office of the Prime Minister in the form of a forwarded document CLASS: 022-13 / 19-05 / 03, REGISTRATION NUMBER: 50302 / 22-20-3 of 31st of January 2020, in which the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković requests from the Minister of Agriculture investigation and statement – of the following content:

“Dear madam Minister, dear Marija,
The Office of the Prime Minister received a notification on a criminal complaint based on possible serious irregularities in Croatian forest management by Hrvatske šume d.o.o., possible serious deviations in the implementation of the Croatian Forest Management Plan, and possible alienation and concealment of large amounts of state resources and social property – Croatian forests. I am forwarding the notification in question in the Attachment.
Please check the allegations in the application and submit your statement to this Office with a r eference to the above mentioned registration number.”

Until the time of compiling of this report, we have not received a single document on the statement of Minister Marija Vučković.

We note that on January 3, 2019, we informed the Prime Minister Andrija Plenković about irregularities in the management of Hrvatske šume d.o.o. (Croatian Forests Ltd.), but only after receiving an ad hominem criminal report for the deforestation of Medvednica on January 29, 2020 his first reaction followed: he asked for a statement from the Minister Vučković.

Regarding the criminal report for the devastation of Mt. Medvednica submitted on January 29, 2020 to the State Attorney’s Office, on March 3 we received a letter from the State Attorney’s Office, Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, Number: KR-US-2020, AT / AT, sent to the District Attorney’s Office:

”Pursuant to Art. 205, paragraph 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code, for further competent proceedings we submit in attachment a criminal report of the association ‘Vidra’-Association of Veterans and Social Action, filed by the president of the association Vesna Grgić, against Krunoslav Jakupčić, President of the Management Board of Hrvatske šume d.o.o. (Croatian Forests Ltd), Damir Miškulin Head of the Zagreb Branch Forest Administration, Ivica Dugački manager of the Zagreb Forest Office and Zvonko Gregurević, manager of the Donja Stubica Forest Office, since the content of the criminal report does not indicate the characteristics of criminal offenses within the competence of this Office, but may be criminal offenses within your actual and local jurisdiction.”

This completes our direct and indirect correspondence with the competent authorities, and we have no information about any of their further steps.

Until the time of compiling this report, our only knowledge is that forests on Mt. Medvednica, but also in other parts of the Republic of Croatia are being destroyed at a frightening, accelerated pace, regardless of whether the devastated areas are in the Natura 2000 protection regime or not.