Split: Kerum walks free, USKOK never asked for detention
Zeljko Kerum left the detention unit once his police custody ran out. Croatia's anti-corruption office is building the case around a single permit that legalised five buildings.
Former Split mayor Zeljko Kerum walked out of the detention unit on July 31, after one night inside and the moment his police custody expired. Croatia’s Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, never asked the court to keep him there, so he will answer the case as a free man. For readers in Serbia this picks up where our report a day earlier left off, when Kerum was arrested aboard a boat in Vela Luka and searches reached the Prsut tavern in Kastela.
His status is not the only thing that changed overnight. Prosecutors also spelled out what the file actually rests on, and a vague reference to corruption offences narrowed down to one administrative decision: a permit legalising buildings put up without approval.
What the prosecutors allege
The investigation was opened on Friday and covers three people. The first defendant is Andrija Polic, a former senior officer for spatial planning and construction in the environmental and planning department of the City of Kastela, suspected of abuse of office and official authority.
Kerum and his nephew Igor Sapunar are suspected of inciting that same offence. Between October 2017 and January 2023, in Kastel Sucurac and Kastel Stafilic, Polic is alleged to have unlawfully favoured Kerum and his company as illegally erected buildings were pushed through the legalisation procedure.
The permit dated January 26, 2023
On that day Polic signed a decision that legalised five buildings: three commercial units and two residential ones with a swimming pool. The total gross floor area is stated down to the centimetre, 1,965.65 square metres.
USKOK says he entered untrue facts into the administrative file although he knew the legal conditions for such a decision were not met. The applications covered structures built after June 2011, which under Croatian law cannot pass through that route at all. Prosecutors also point to an untrue official note drawn up in August 2022 and to the use of a 2017 aerial survey instead of the 2011 one, which allowed a far larger footprint to be signed off than the rules permitted.
Why was detention sought for Sapunar alone?
Of the three defendants, USKOK proposed pre-trial detention only for Igor Sapunar, who was questioned and returned to the detention unit while the court decides. No such motion was filed against Kerum or Polic, and both were let go.
Kerum rejects the suspicions
Kerum denies wrongdoing and maintains the entire procedure was carried out in line with the law. His lawyer, Zeljko Gulisija, said he had expected this outcome “given the state of the file”.
Kerum is a former mayor of Split and president of the Croatian Civic Party, HGS, which gives a case about legalisation paperwork in Kastela a political weight it would not otherwise carry. Our July 30 story noted that the operation also took in the Prsut tavern in Kastel Stafilic and a marina in Rogoznica; the prosecution statement has now reduced that part to one date and one signature.
Next comes the court ruling on detention for Sapunar, followed by questioning of the remaining defendants in an investigation that is formally still running.
