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Modric: Croatia football captain charged with perjury

mawspurs

Staff
Jun 29, 2003
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Croatian authorities have charged the captain of the national football team, Luka Modric, with perjury.
The Real Madrid midfielder is suspected of making false statements at the tax fraud trial of Zdravko Mamic, his former manager at Dinamo Zagreb.

Source: BBC
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
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Not sure how they are going to prove it? Unless they have a witness.
 

hellava_tough

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2005
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Not sure how they are going to prove it? Unless they have a witness.

Well certainly in the UK the CPS don't pursue a conviction without solid evidence, robust enough to be scrutinised by the defence in a court of law.

So I'm guessing it's similar in Croatia; essentially there must be at least some credible evidence?

Sentencing is a different matter though; perjury in the UK is treated as a very serious offence and is punished accordingly with custodial sentences. No idea what the sentencing of perjury is like in Croatia. Fines, suspended sentence, custodial?
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
3,461
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Well certainly in the UK the CPS don't pursue a conviction without solid evidence, robust enough to be scrutinised by the defence in a court of law.

So I'm guessing it's similar in Croatia; essentially there must be at least some credible evidence?

Sentencing is a different matter though; perjury in the UK is treated as a very serious offence and is punished accordingly with custodial sentences. No idea what the sentencing of perjury is like in Croatia. Fines, suspended sentence, custodial?
Medal.
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
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Not sure how they are going to prove it? Unless they have a witness.

Relatively easy to prove I expect. I don't know exactly what he's said but for example if he's said "I never agreed to do xyz" and they have a wire tap or an email/text message of him saying "ok I'll do xyz" then he's banged to rights. They wouldn't be pursuing the prosecution unless they had concrete evidence im sure
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Relatively easy to prove I expect. I don't know exactly what he's said but for example if he's said "I never agreed to do xyz" and they have a wire tap or an email/text message of him saying "ok I'll do xyz" then he's banged to rights. They wouldn't be pursuing the prosecution unless they had concrete evidence im sure

Probably. I was just reading that they are saying he lied about what year he signed a bit of paper whether it was 2004 or 2008. Which might be hard to prove without a witness.
 

Krule

Carpe Diem
Jun 4, 2017
4,534
8,687
I'm sure (just like the cases in Spain recently) that a sizeable fine or donation to charitable funds will allow him to dodge a custodial sentence. Drop in the ocean to what these players earn....
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,271
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I would have to admit would find it slightly amusing if Lovren got done... ??
 

Coyboy

The Double of 1961 is still The Double
Dec 3, 2004
15,506
5,032
Malbranque wouldn't have perjured himself. Just saying.
 

Azazello

The Boney King of Nowhere
Aug 15, 2009
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Perjury? Did he swear in court that he loves the chicken badge when he didn’t actually love the chicken badge?
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,216
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44381167

Among the ex-Dinamo players caught up in the trial is Croatia captain Luca Modric, who was charged with perjury.

The Real Madrid midfielder is suspected to have made false statements during the tria, when he was questioned about his 2008 transfer to Tottenham Hotspur. He has not commented on the charge.
 

yanno

Well-Known Member
Aug 1, 2003
5,857
2,877
There's a lot of background on Mamic and how he allegedly treated young players here in a Guardian article about Kramaric written by a Croatian-based journalist, Aleksandar Holiga:

---------------------------

Andrej Kramaric has gone against the grain and, against sizeable odds, come out on top. The Hoffenheim forward has risked his career in sticking to his principles and now stands to shine for a Croatia side whose attack has often struggled for fluency.

A recent court anecdote casts light on the forces Kramaric has had to battle. It also explains why Croatia have lost so much support at home, with players scorned rather than celebrated going into the World Cup.

It centres on Zdravko Mamic, the most powerful man in domestic football. Mamic is on trial for, among other things, massive-scale embezzlement of Dinamo Zagreb’s funds. While at the club, he took big chunks of transfer money paid to Dinamo.

He would first sign personal contracts with young players that entitled him to a large share of their earnings; then, acting as a club executive, put clauses in their contracts specifying the split of transfer fee between the club and the player. Once a player received a portion of any money a foreign club paid Dinamo for his services — as high as 50% — he would forward most of it to Mamic.

That is not being disputed by Mamic’s lawyers. But the prosecution is trying to prove some of those clauses, including in the cases of Luka Modric and Dejan Lovren, were added and backdated only after the players had been sold. Modric and Lovren asserted that during the investigation but changed their testimonies in court as witnesses for the prosecution, saying the investigators had confused them.

Modric has been charged with perjury and Lovren is being investigated for it. This has turned large sections of the public against the players.

Among the papers Mamic submitted to court as “evidence of his innocence”, something was discovered: a document investigators claim was a list of instructions for Lovren on how to answer specific questions asked by the prosecution. Apparently he had followed those almost to the letter.

Kramaric says he refused to follow in the more experienced players’ footsteps and sign such a contract. It nearly destroyed his career but he does not discuss it. “There is no need; everyone knows what was happening and the stories you hear are true,” he said last year. “I came out of it with a smile on my face and made a success for myself. But of course it left a bitter taste. Dinamo was my dream ever since I was a kid.”

The Zagreb-born youngster joined the club at six and scored 452 goals, by his count, for their youth teams. He was the best attacking talent their academy produced in decades and Mamic repeatedly approached Kramaric’s family, promising money and various perks if he came under his wing. The family declined and things were made difficult for Kramaric.

Although he made a promising start for the first team, he would be benched at the first sign of a drop in form. He would be sent on loans to Lokomotiva, Dinamo’s farm club, and even after he did very well there Dinamo coaches tended to favour other players. Meanwhile the club declined inquiries from foreign clubs – hoping to break him into signing a contract with Mamic.

Andrej Kramaric joined Leicester for £9m in January 2015 but featured in only 15 league games before joining Hoffenheim, first on loan and then permanently.
But Kramaric did not buckle. In 2013 he went public with complaints about a lack of playing time, his father insinuating it related to their refusal to go with Mamic. He was transfer-listed and Rijeka signed him.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nciples-dinamo-zagreb-zdravko-mamic-world-cup
 
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