Luka Modric Probe 'Sends Warning to Perjurers'

Croatian former justice minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt said on Tuesday that the investigation into Real Madrid football star Luka Modric, suspected of giving false testimony in court about alleged financial kickbacks in his 2008 transfer from Dinamo Zagreb, should be a warning to people considering committing perjury.

"This sends a message to all those who are testifying - they must tell the truth," Skare Ozbolt told TV N1.

The prosecutor's office in the Croatian city of Osijek announced on Monday that it has launched an investigation into Modric over suspected perjury during his testimony on June 13 in the corruption trial of Zdravko Mamic, his former chief at Dinamo Zagreb.

Modric testified about his 21-million-euro transfer from Dinamo Zagreb to Tottenham Hotspur in Britain in 2008.

The indictment claims Dinamo paid Modric a part of the transfer fee, most of which he then returned to Mamic and his family in cash.

However, the testimony that Modric gave to the Osijek court last week differed from his statement to Croatia's Office for Suppressing Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, in August 2015.

The prosecution in Osijek told BIRN it couldn't release any additional information about the case. BIRN could not reach Modric for a comment.

Skare Ozbolt told N1 that sentences for perjury in Croatia range from five months to five years in prison and that if the prosecution launches a case against Modric, it would have to provide evidence that his testimony in court was false.

"What is said in court is taken as the truth, but USKOK always has the option to prove things further, launch criminal indictments […] and simply confirm with other evidence that the testimony was false or amended so that it does not exactly...