October 12, 2022 - Former Prime Minister and President of the HDZ, Ivo Sanader, was acquitted of war profiteering in the Hypo scandal in a retrial on Wednesday, for which he was convicted twice in earlier proceedings.
As Poslovni writes, the verdict was announced by Zagreb County Court judge Saša Lui after the prosecution and defense presented their closing speeches last week. Sanader once again asserted that he was not responsible for war profiteering, stressing that he stands by the defenses he presented in earlier proceedings.
Disputed commission of HRK 3.6 million
Sanader was tried for the third time for the Hypo affair. He was convicted twice before, and the Constitutional and Supreme Courts overturned the verdicts.
Uskok's prosecutor, Marija Vučko, asserted in her closing speech that even in the repeated proceedings, it was proven that Sanader had committed the crimes for which he was accused.
Sanader's lawyer Čedo Prodanović pointed out, on the other hand, that there was no war profiteering in this case and that, despite the conclusions of the higher courts, Uskok did not deviate from its initial position.
The prosecution accused Sanader of receiving a commission of HRK 3.6 million from Hypo Bank as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in late 1994 and early 1995 after Croatia was granted a loan to purchase embassy buildings.
This way, according to the prosecution's claims, in the difficult financial and economic situation caused by the war, Sanader achieved an illegal financial benefit that is disproportionate to the threatened fundamental values of the state and social community, as well as state interests.
Sanader has been in prison since 2019
Sanader has been in prison since April 2019, when the Supreme Court increased his sentence for corruption in the Planinska case to six years in prison.
In mid-October 2021, the Supreme Court partially confirmed the verdict from the repeated proceedings in the Fimi Media case, according to which HDZ must pay HRK 3.5 million in fines for extracting money from state institutions and companies, while Sanader's sentence was reduced from eight to seven years in prison.
At the end of October 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance verdict by which Sanader was sentenced to six years for accepting a bribe from the head of the Hungarian MOL, Zsolt Hernadi, while the unavailable Hernadi was sentenced to two years in prison.
In mid-November 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the only acquittal against Sanader, by which he was acquitted together with entrepreneur Robert Ježić for selling cheap electricity to Ježić Dioki to the detriment of HEP.
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