ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - A Zagreb County Court panel on Monday dismissed a motion for their recusal filed by the defence of former prime minister Ivo Sanader in the INA-MOL corruption trial, in which the other defendant is Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of the Hungarian energy company MOL, who is beyond the reach of the Croatian authorities.
Panel president Maja Štampar Stipić also dismissed a motion to postpone today's hearing, filed by Sanader's new court-appointed attorney Nikola Drobac. Instead of three months he had requested to familiarise himself with the case, he was given one month.
The panel found that with their motions, the defence was trying to stall the trial.
Judge Stampar Stipic adjourned the previous hearing on February 8 because Sanader's counsel had not shown up and chose a lawyer for him, which Sanader called a gross violation of his constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms. Today he again claimed that the court's choosing a lawyer for him violated his minimum rights to a defence.
In the INA-MOL case, Sanader was already convicted to 10 years in prison for taking a bribe from Hernadi, but the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 8.5 years. The ruling was eventually quashed by the Constitutional Court.
The USKOK anti-corruption office accused Sanader of giving controlling rights in Croatian energy company INA to MOL for EUR 10 million and of arranging with Hernadi the divesting of INA's unprofitable gas business.
Former INA supervisory board chair Davor Štern testified in court on Monday that the energy company's management was "only formal" and that its Hungarian peer MOL made all the decisions without seeing to INA's interests.
"INA's management was only formal because all decisions were made by the board of executive directors, and one could also hear that closing down the Sisak refinery was widely discussed already in the 2009 contract amendments. MOL had 44% ownership and practically made every decision, without seeing to INA's interests," said Stern.
More news on the INA-MOL case can be found in the Business section.
