Prime Minister calls psychiatric patient's death murder after footage emerges
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Surveillance footage from the Jankomir psychiatric facility has surfaced appearing to show staff beating and suffocating a bound patient, Kristijan Periš, with a pillow. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has called the incident murder and invited the public to watch the video. The hospital had previously claimed the 32-year-old athlete was an aggressive addict; the family's lawyer says the footage and the facts say otherwise.
The government is simultaneously facing pressure over a second hospital scandal involving official Dijana Zadravec. While Mr Plenković remained silent on the matter during a recent party meeting, the opposition is targeting both the Prime Minister and Zadravec in parliament. Her fate is expected to be settled by a five-person committee that includes a party official currently implicated in a separate scandal.
Elsewhere, the weather is delivering a characteristically inconsistent week of flash floods and snow followed by a forecast of 20 degrees Celsius. In Cetingrad, a resident digging near his home found an underground bunker while excavating his property.