Croatian capital Zagreb's mayor arrested over corruption

Croatia's anti-corruption investigation agency,USKOK, arrested Sunday evening Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic on corruption charges, media reported.

The chief executive officer(CEO) of the multi-utility city company Zagrebacki Holding, Slobodan Ljubicic, and the owner of the industrial waste removal company CIOS, Petar Pripuz, were aslo arrested, Xinhua reported.

Ministry of the Interior posted on its website information saying that a number of persons were arrested after an investigation of several months into suspected wrongdoing in the city government and Zagrebacki Holding.

According to unofficial sources, Bandic, his close associate Ljubicic and a Zagreb entrepreneur Pripuz allegedly caused a financial harm to the city budget by committing a series of corruption-related crimes.

Reports have linked Bandic to a number of corruption probes in the past decade but he has never been interrogated or detained until now.

Bandic, a former Social Democrat who left the party in 2009 to run as an independent candidate in the presidential election that year, has been at the helm of the Croatian capital since 2000.