After the investigation, Uskok brought an indictment before the County Court in Zagreb against nine Croatian citizens and one Serbian citizen for paying bribes for the issuance of false vaccination certificates against Covid. The indictment charges them with being in Zagreb from September to November 2021, even though they knew they had not been vaccinated against Covid-19, and therefore did not have the right to an EU digital Covid certificate. They asked a nurse employed at the Zagreb-Zapad Health Center, through an intermediary, to falsely enter in the information system of the Ministry of Health that they had been vaccinated. The intermediary then handed over the defendant’s information and at least 100 euros that he had previously obtained from them to the nurse, who then entered the information in the system that they had been vaccinated. This allowed the defendants to unjustifiably obtain EU digital Covid certificates, according to the announcement from Uskok.
The prosecution launched an investigation in September of last year against a total of 243 people for paying bribes for falsely registering vaccinations for Covid. Among the suspects were individuals from public life. Last week, Uskok completed the investigation and filed charges against the first group of 14 defendants. The crime of bribing an official or responsible person to perform an official or other act within or beyond the limits of his authority that should not be performed by law provides for a prison sentence of one to eight years.