ZAGREB, CROATIA - After Javno.com reported that Milenko Kuzmanovic has still gotten his mobile phones back, despite charges relating to the murder of Ivo Pukanic being dropped, we find out from his lawyer Ivan Bujanovic that he has finally received them back. Remember, Kuzmanovic was released from custody on Christmas Eve in 2008, when according to the law he mobile phones should have been returned.

“I do not know why they waited so much with that. When I leave custody, I normally received the paperwork to have my Opel Corsa returned, however I could not get paperwork for the mobile phones.

Judge Jadranka Mandusic then told me that I have to wait for the order to be brought on returning temporarily confiscated things, and that I have to wait for it to become non-appealable. However, in the end I only received an order on which it was written that my mobiles were handed to my lawyer Bujanovic” said Kuzmanovic.

It was this lawyer, says Kuzmanovic, who went to the County Court countless times after Kuzmanovic was released, more precisely judge Jadranka Mandusic, to ask for his mobile phones backs, but unsuccessfully.

Kuzmanovic to Sue Croatia for Stay in Croatia.

“I do not even know how many times my lawyer called me and told me that he cannot get to those phones. What is the worst is that I myself called judge Mandusic every other day to ask her what was happening with that and what next. Every time that I called, she was at a hearing or not present. It was all suspicious to me, so I already started to fear that something was not being done according to the law and that they continued to lie, like what occurred since the start in my case” said Kuzmanovic.

Remember, they told Kuzmanovic during his stay in custody that nothing disputable was not found in his mobile phones linking to the assassination of Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic, besides the number of Robert Matanic.

“The investigator said that I had 220 messages on my private mobile phone, of which 215 were from my girlfriend, whilst on my official phone there were a few dozen messages of official content. They told me that they wanted to check if there was any correspondence between me and Djurovic, and I did not even have his number. They saw that I had Robbie’s number, and that is it” said Kuzmanovic. He added that it was because of this that he did not know why they stalled returning the phones so long.

Despite the charges against Kuzmanovic linked to the murder of Pukanic and Franjic being dropped, he decided that he will seek justice at the Constitutional Court for the 55 days that he spent in custody. Remember, Kuzmanovic recently filed a suit against Croatia. He said that the suit was not about money, but the wish to have paper evidence that Croatia made a mistake in his case.

“My lawyers said that they will seek damages for everything that I suffered in custody, and here is the fact that whilst in prison I could not earn, and in the end I was left without a job. However, as I said, that is not important to me, it is important that Croatia admit that they made a mistake in my case. They held me for 55 das without any evidence, innocent, in prison” he concluded.