(Zagreb) Croatian Real Madrid veteran Luka Modric and fellow Lyon defender Dejan Lovren were charged again in their country with perjury in 2017 in a major corruption trial that rocked local football , we learned from a judicial source.
The two players had already been charged for the same facts in 2018, but these prosecutions were dropped a few months later, after the second place won by the Croats at the World Cup in Russia in which both had participated.
The facts relate to their testimonies during the trial of former Dinamo Zagreb boss Zdravko Mamic and three other people, about their contracts with the Croatian team and their transfers to Tottenham in 2008 for Modric and to Lyon in 2010 for Lovren.
This new indictment comes three days after Modric, 37, decided to extend his contract until June 2024 with Real Madrid, of which he remains one of the pillars.
Without disclosing names, the prosecution said in a statement that it had charged two Croatian nationals, born in 1985 and 1989, with “false testimony” before a court in Osijek in 2017, “in the trial against four defendants (tried for) facts of abuse of power”. According to the Croatian press, it is Modric and Lovren.
The facts relate more specifically to the signing of the annexes to their contracts with Dinamo Zagreb, in connection with their transfers.
The “criminal offense of perjury” is punishable by six months to five years in prison, according to the Croatian Criminal Code.
Zdravko Mamic, who is on the run in Bosnia, was sentenced in this trial to six and a half years in prison for embezzling, with his accomplices, more than 15 million euros (22 million) from the club, facts having also caused damage of 1.5 million euros (2.2 million) to the State.
His brother Zoran, also on the run in Bosnia, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.