USKOK did not request detention for Željko Kerum and Andrija Polić, while Igor Sapunar was remanded due to the risk of influencing witnesses in the illegal regularization of the Pršut tavern case.
Former Split mayor and president of the Croatian Citizens' Party (HGS) Željko Kerum will mount his defense from freedom in the USKOK investigation into the illegal regularization of the former Pršut tavern, now operating under the name Hacijenda Amora. The court made the same decision for former Kaštela city official Andrija Polić, while Kerum's nephew Igor Sapunar was remanded to custody for a month.
As reported by Telegram.hr, USKOK deputy director Natalija Petković confirmed that the investigating judge of the County Court in Split accepted their proposal for detention only for Sapunar, citing the risk of influencing witnesses. "For the other defendants, there were no grounds for detention," Petković stated.
Sapunar's defense attorney, Damir Primorac, did not hide his surprise at the decision. He stressed that it is unclear why detention was ordered only for his client, while noting that he does not advocate for the detention of the other defendants. "In every case, the incrimination of each individual defendant is always considered. Regardless of when this basis for detention is applied, the question arises whether it is necessary to order detention if we know the offense was committed between 2017 and 2023, and we are now in 2026," Primorac told Telegram.hr.
The attorney added that he believes Sapunar, had he wanted to influence someone, would not have waited until his arrest. "If he had wanted to influence someone, he would have done it already," Primorac said, adding that he could have taken such action over the past ten years. He also emphasized that milder measures, such as a ban on contacting witnesses, were not considered. Sapunar will spend the next month in the prison at Bilice, and the investigating judge is expected to question four witnesses in this case.
According to USKOK and the Police Directorate, as reported by Cronika.hr, Andrija Polić is suspected of abuse of office and authority, while Kerum and Sapunar are charged with inciting that offense. Investigators suspect that Polić, as a senior associate for spatial planning and construction in the City of Kaštela, illegally favored Kerum and his company in the process of regularizing illegally constructed buildings in Kaštel Sućurac and Kaštel Štafilić from October 2017 to January 2023.
XPress.hr details the sequence of events: Kerum, as the investor and site manager, and Sapunar, as the representative of his companies, requested Polić to issue regularization decisions for buildings illegally constructed after June 2011. Polić then, on August 30, 2022, drafted an official note falsely stating that an inspection of the State Geodetic Administration's 2011 orthophoto map confirmed the existence of these buildings. However, instead of the 2011 map, he attached the 2017 one, on which the buildings were already visible.
Based on this false representation, Polić issued a decision on January 26, 2023, regularizing five buildings with a total gross area of 1,965.65 square meters-three for commercial use and two serving as the main structure, along with a pool and associated machine room. This enabled Kerum and his company to build a significantly larger area than what existed before June 21, 2011, and in an agricultural zone outside the urban area of the Kaštela General Urban Plan, where such construction is not permitted at all.
As unofficially learned by Index and reported by XPress.hr, all three defendants denied guilt during questioning. None chose to remain silent; instead, they attempted to explain their version of events to investigators. In his defense, Kerum admitted that he had been building all along, not just until 2011, which aligns with investigators' claims. The prosecution launched the investigation in May 2026, and Kerum had already dismissed all charges at that time, asserting that everything was legal.
For Kerum and Polić, USKOK did not request detention because, as they stated, there were no grounds. Their defense attorney, Željko Gulišija, confirmed to Slobodna Dalmacija that Kerum was released after spending a night in the detention unit.
