Croatia: The charges against the Karlovac Brewery dismissed as unfounded
The Karlovac County Court out-of-court council dismissed all the accused parties’ objections to the charges against Karlovacka Pivovara (Karlovac Brewery) as a company and its technical leadership, as unfounded and the indictment thus came into effect, says the court’s spokeswoman Alenka Lapalo, Javno published June 19.
All the accused parties raised objections to the charges against the Karlovac Brewery: Gabor Ligeti, Slaven Siladic, Zrinka Odrcic, Marija Tufekovic, Marinko Kovacevic and the accused legal entity, Karlovacka pivovara d.o.o. The accused parties are defending themselves from freedom and precaution measures have been taken against Ligeti as a foreign citizen: his passport has been taken away, he is banned from leaving his residence and from leaving Croatia.
The debate in the evidentiary hearing will not be scheduled before autumn, judge Ante Ujevic told news agency Hina. He added that the Karlovac Brewery indictment document was a priority, but that it “abounds in technical and other data and it will take some time to study it.”
As a reminder, the Karlovac Brewery as a legal entity and five people who are held accountable were charged with the severe criminal act against the general safety of people and property. To clarify, the leak of a huge quantity of carbon dioxide into a stream near the Brewery reduced the level of oxygen in the air, which caused the death of Zdravko Martinovic, who was walking his dog along the stream on February 23.
Martinovic was in a coma for almost a month and died of the consequences of hypoxic asphyxiation, which had also caused the loss of consciousness. He died at the Karlovac general hospital on March 19.
The investigation showed that the possibility that Martinovic’s dog died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation was in line with the results of the tests that were done.
The request for investigation of the technical leadership of the Karlovac Brewery states that technical director Gabor Ligeti ordered and chief engineer Slaven Siladic organized the secret leak of carbon dioxide in the waste water canal, while accused parties Marinko Kovacevic, Zrinka Odrcic and Marija Tufekovic allowed production to continue in this manner.
The Karlovac Brewery spokeswoman Ana Kljaic confirmed that the pipe was attached to the sewage system under Martinovic’s house and the Brewery in a way that is not in keeping with the regulations.
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