USKOK indicted 33 people for abuse of office and authority and forgery of documents

USKOK has completed the investigation and filed an indictment before the County Court in Rijeka against 33 individuals, including officials from the City of Vodnjan and the Istrian County, on suspicion of abuse of position and authority, as well as several other criminal offenses.

According to the indictment, the first, second, and twenty-seventh accused, as officials of the City of Vodnjan, and the twenty-fourth accused as an official of the Istrian County, from 2013 to 2019, acted as official persons in the procedures for legalizing illegally built structures in the cadastres of Vodnjan, Peroj, Galižana, Fažana, and Pomer. At the request of property owners and their proxies, they issued at least 26 decisions on the as-built condition, contrary to the Law on the Treatment of Illegally Built Buildings. They often used or fabricated false documents, fully aware that these structures could not be legalized under current laws.

The first accused, as an advisor for spatial planning and construction in the City of Vodnjan, in at least 19 cases enabled the retention of illegally built structures, often preventing the issuance or implementation of decisions for their removal. This allowed the owners of these buildings and other persons to gain significant property benefits, estimated at at least 758,610.92 euros, reflected in the increased value of land with built structures.

The documents used by the first accused were prepared by the third accused as a licensed geodetic engineer, the fourth accused as a licensed civil engineer, the eighth accused as a licensed architect, the ninth accused as an associate of a licensed architect, the twenty-second accused as an associate of a licensed architect, and the twenty-third accused as a licensed architect.

The first accused, together with the second accused, head of the Administrative Department for the Communal System, Spatial Planning and Property Affairs, in at least two cases issued or ordered the issuance of illegal decisions, enabling property owners to significantly increase the value of their properties and gain undue property benefits of at least 39,505.66 euros.

The twenty-seventh accused, as a senior advisor for construction in the Administrative Department for the Communal System, Spatial Planning, and Property Affairs, in at least three cases issued similar decisions, allowing property owners undue property benefits of at least 302,430.97 euros.

The twenty-fourth accused, head of the Department for Spatial Planning and Construction in the Administrative Department for Decentralization, Local and Regional Self-Government, Spatial Planning and Construction of the Istrian County, in at least two cases drafted and issued illegal decisions, enabling property owners undue property benefits of at least 37,822.77 euros.

The twenty-eighth accused is charged with supplementing the request for legalization of a building submitted back in 2013 during 2019 and 2020, attaching a geodetic survey of the as-built condition of the illegally built structure. The third accused falsely represented on the 2018 survey that the building was visible on the map, enabling the twenty-eighth accused to legalize the illegally built residential building, thereby gaining undue property benefits of at least 41,847.06 euros.

USKOK has proposed the confiscation of illegally obtained property benefits from all the accused, totaling an estimated 1,180,217.38 euros.