Minister Djedovic Handanovic Faces Istria Land Probe

Danijela Nestorovic, a lawmaker with the Ecological Uprising party and a practicing attorney, asked the Anti-Corruption Agency on August 3 to open proceedings against Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic over assets she allegedly failed to declare on time. At issue is a stake in the Croatian company Kulturistria, which owns roughly 21,000 square meters of land in the Zminj area of Istria.

Nestorovic filed the request even though Djedovic Handanovic left the company’s ownership structure back in June. In the lawmaker’s view, a later withdrawal from the court registry does not erase an obligation that existed before it.

State officials, ministers especially, are required to declare all assets they hold at the moment they take office.

Asked whether stepping down from the company closes the matter, the lawmaker was blunt: “The fact that Djedovic Handanovic was removed from co-ownership of the foreign company absolutely does not free her of responsibility as a minister.” She added that the standard legal procedure would have kicked in had an undeclared used car turned up in an opposition politician’s assets.

Company with no employees, land in Istria

Kulturistria was registered in late 2022, listed under hotel and similar accommodation activities. It was founded by three people: Croatian actor Goran Bogdan, Sarajevo based architect Nedzad Mulaomerovic, and the minister herself. Djedovic Handanovic became a member of the company on December 6, 2022, meaning she already held her ministerial post in the Serbian government at the time.

Her stake was 35 percent, with a nominal value of 101,340 euros. A conservative estimate puts the value of the land the company owns at 335,000 to 392,000 euros, and given the location and its potential for tourism development, the market price could top half a million.

The two figures do not line up. Based on the conservative estimate, a 35 percent stake works out to between 117,000 and 137,000 euros, more than the nominal value recorded in the Croatian registry. Using the market estimate, the gap widens to more than 70,000 euros.

What can the Agency disclose?

The Anti-Corruption Agency opened an extraordinary review on June 19 into the accuracy and completeness of the minister’s asset and income report. At the time, the institution spelled out how the process works and how far the public’s right to know actually extends.

In the course of a review, the Agency, acting under Articles 36 and 76 of the Anti-Corruption Act, obtains data from other public authorities as well as legal and natural persons, and after analyzing all the data collected, issues a decision on whether the law was violated. We note that under Article 81, paragraph 1 of the ZSK, the only information available to the public is whether proceedings have been opened against a public official to determine whether the ZSK was violated, and the outcome of those proceedings.

The practical effect of that provision is straightforward. The public will learn that proceedings were opened, which has already happened, and how they ended, but not the grounds on which the decision was reached. The reasoning, the documentation gathered and the legal assessment stay out of public view, reducing the entire dispute over whether the obligation was breached to a single sentence about the outcome.

Nestorovic aimed her sharpest criticism at that very institution.

Yet we have seen time and again that the Anti-Corruption Agency does not open proceedings when it comes to state officials of the Serbian Progressive Party.

Minister says everything was declared

The story broke in June with claims made by Nemanja Sarovic, a former lawmaker with the Serbian Radical Party and president of the Ljubav, vera, nada (Love, Faith, Hope) movement. Djedovic Handanovic confirmed at the time that she owned a company in Croatia, insisting it has no activity and that land is its only asset.

So the company generates no profit because it has no activity and no employees, and I have never received any income from it, neither in the past nor now, not in cash, nor in goods, rights or obligations, not for myself and not for any third party. As far as I’m concerned, my background and my financial situation are a matter of public record. I worked in the private sector for more than 20 years in senior positions. I joined the Serbian government because I wanted to work for my country, and that is the greatest honor and opportunity I have been given in my life.

The minister also said the land was bought before she took up her ministerial post. The registration date in the Croatian court registry tells a different story about the company itself, since the entity was founded in December 2022, when she was already a government member. The land and the legal entity holding it are not the same thing, but the duty to declare covers both.

Her asset disclosure on the Agency’s website did not, at that point, mention the company. The real estate section, however, did list her as owner of 35 percent of 22,000 square meters of construction and agricultural land. The land itself, in other words, had been declared, while the company holding it had not.

A timeline that fits into eleven days

The minister filed a new asset and income report with the Agency on June 8, 2026, after media reports that her stake in Kulturistria had gone undeclared. That report listed the 35 percent ownership.

The Commercial Court in Zagreb registered the change in company membership on June 18, based on a ruling issued June 17. Under that ruling, Djedovic Handanovic ceased to be a member of the company, and her stake passed to Goran Bogdan, who is also the company’s director. Since then, only Bogdan and Mulaomerovic remain listed in the registry.

A day later, on June 19, the Agency opened its extraordinary review. No deadline for concluding the process has been made public, nor has a date for the next decision.