Pripuz rejects Gospić ecocide allegations and threatens legal action: “Are you ready to apologize publicly?”

Petar Pripuz has rejected accusations linking his waste-management company CE-ZA-R to what Most lawmaker Zvonimir Troskot described as a possible “ecocide” in Gospić, and warned that he would respond through legal channels.

Troskot recently asked Croatia’s State Attorney’s Office to investigate CE-ZA-R’s possible role in the remediation of Gospić. In a statement, Pripuz called the lawmaker’s claims inaccurate, misleading, malicious and irresponsible. He said he had to respond “with all available legal means” to protect the reputation, professional work and business operations of companies he owns.

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Because of your inaccurate, misleading, malicious and irresponsible statements, I am obliged to respond with all available legal means to protect the reputation, professional work and business operations of the companies I own.

Pripuz said the companies in the C.I.O.S. Group operate in full compliance with waste-management law. He rejected what he called any unfounded attempt to associate a group company with participation in an ecocide, including the case at the center of current, largely political, debate. He also said CE-ZA-R had neither delivered nor unloaded hazardous or non-hazardous waste in Gospić.

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I reject every unfounded attempt by you to associate any member of the Group with any form of participation in an ecocide, including the one at the center of the current, mostly political, events.

He challenged Troskot to clarify whether he was concerned about residents’ health and the quality of life in Gospić, or about who would resolve the problem operationally. “If it turns out that your claims are untrue and that you disturbed and misled the public, are you ready to apologize publicly to us, whom you defamed, and to the citizens of Gospić?” Pripuz asked.

He said his company was monitoring public statements about the issue and urged media outlets to verify the claims. Without such action, he added, the company would take appropriate legal steps against those responsible.

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If it turns out that your claims are untrue and that you disturbed and misled the public, are you ready to apologize publicly to us, whom you defamed, and to the citizens of Gospić?