April the 7th, 2023 - This week in Croatian politics, we've seen ex Prime Minister but current prison inmate Ivo Sanader's art collection begin being sold off, Plenkovic has been accused of encroaching on peoples' rights by a law expert, another HDZ official has been accused of inappropriate behaviour, and more. Happy Easter!

Former PM Ivo Sanader's art collections are being sold off

Ivo Sanader is arguably HDZ's most infamous criminal of all, currently serving his sentence in Remetinec prison for corruption. His art collection is now being sold off. 

As Index reports, the state confiscated art works belonging to former PM Ivo Sanader and will put many of them up for public auction to be sold off. Although the former prime minister once claimed that he had works of art worth 1.5 million kuna in his collection, it's now clear that their value is actuallty much higher. Among the paintings that will be auctioned off are five works by no less than Vlaho Bukovac.

However, the road to the public auction was arduous. Back at the end of December 2010, investigators spent a massive sixteen hours cataloging all of his works of art. Taking them out around midnight was not an easy task at all, but there were no Bukovac paintings among the seized materials back then, so a month later, the police issued a warrant for them. They were removed after twelve years.

Five paintings by that famous painter are being kept in the Museum of Contemporary Art. As Dnevnik Nova TV writes, appraisers assessed a total of twelve works of art by Ivo Sanader at a total value of more than 240,000 euros. The state is demanding slightly more than 11 million euros from ex PM Sanader. What will happen to Bukovac's works is also being closely monitored in the painter's birthplace (his former home) down in Konavle, in the extreme south of Dalmatia, which has been converted into an art gallery.

"Until now, we've witnessed a large number of auctions where various Bukovac works were sold off, including very important examples, and, unfortunately, we can't obtain such material," said Antonika Ruskovic Radonic, the director of the Public Institution for culture, museums and galleries in Konavle. In the opinion of many people, it's somewhat absurd that now, when the state finally has the paintings of the most valued Croatian painter in its possession, it's selling that material off.

"For the Bukovac house, those works would be exceptional because that represents the beginning for everyone who researches Bukovac, his life and his work. It's the first place you come to because of its archive and the valuable materials kept here," said Ruskovic Radonic. However, not all of them are available to the public because many of Bukovac's works are privately owned. They can be purchased from private collectors.

Euronews claims certain Croatian MEPs have been downplaying crimes committed during Croatia's time as an Axis country and beyond

Croatia, then the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna drzava hrvatska/NDH), was aligned with the Germans (perhaps better to say with the array of Axis states) during the second world war. The government back during those days was led by Dr. Ante Pavelic, and numerous crimes were committed in Croatia much like they were across the majority of Europe in that dark period of history. Euronews has accused Croatian MEPs of downplaying Croatian crimes committed between 1941 and 1945, and beyond it.

Recently, Croatian representatives in the European Parliament in Brussels organised events where, it seems to some, they dragged up controversial issues related to terrorism and Nazi collaborators from a certain period of Croatian history that nobody really likes to talk about.

Zeljana Zovko, representative of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), attended a seminar last week as part of a series of events of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament, according to Euronews. According to the panel's premise, they focused on the terrifying secret services of former communist nations, because "the totalitarian regimes of the past may no longer exist, but their secret services and networks live on," Zovko said.

As Index reports, Zdravka Busic, a member of the Croatian National Resistance or Otpor back during the 1970s, gave a presentation at the event. Many consider Otpor to be a ''far-right organisation responsible for several terrorist attacks around the world.'' Of course, things run a little deeper and are more complex than that, as with all things Croatian, but I digress.

"I'm sure that Zdravka Busic will contribute significantly to this seminar with her deep knowledge and personal experience on this issue," continued Zovko.

Back in September 1976, Zdravka's brother Zvonko Busic participated in the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines plane flying from New York to Chicago and planted a bomb at Grand Central Station in New York, demanding that an appeal for Croatian independence be published in a leading American newspaper. The plane was diverted to Montreal and then to Newfoundland, where 35 passengers were released. After negotiations with the American ambassador in Paris, the hijackers surrendered.

One New York policeman was killed while dismantling the bomb, and the perpetrators were convicted of air piracy. This leads some to the question of: just why did Zdravka Busic feel the need to speak about these topics in the European Parliament? The panel appealed for the opening of state archives of the former communist secret services, "so that they can be fully investigated and deal with the existing structures from the communist era and their crimes". This is a request that has been being revisited and reopened for many years now.

Zdravka Busic and her brother were rehabilitated after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the declaration of Croatia's independence. She was a member of the Croatian Parliament and a member of the European Parliament after Croatia joined the EU in 2013. In her presentation, Busic focused on the actions of Yugoslavia's state security, or UDBA, which she accused of committing heinous crimes, including imprisoning, torturing and killing those deemed to be participating in "hostile activities against the state."

"Many individuals from the young Croatian generation believed that the creation of an independent and democratic state of Croatia was of crucial importance," Busic explained at the meeting.

Busic did not directly address - or even mention - the activities in which she, her brother and husband were convicted, although she expressed several views on the activities of Croatian emigrant communities or the diaspora, according to a recording of the panel obtained by Euronews. Why are communist crimes being talked about today, you might ask? Zdravka Busic insisted that "the biological descendants and ideological followers of communists have great power even now in the modern age" and that communist ideology left a "clear mark of contamination" on all of Croatian society. Most with any knowledge of the period wouldn't disagree, and although the topic of the discussion might seem reasonable at first glance, Busic and other speakers failed to mention the fact that the conversation about communist crimes is still a platform for gathering the far right, ultra-nationalists and Nazi apologists who promote ideas that promote discrimination even today.

These topics are meant to stoke fears and justify their beliefs, believes Michael Colborne, a journalist and researcher at Bellingcat who has covered Croatia and the Balkans extensively.

Former HDZ Parliamentarian is going to court for allegedly threatening a journalist

The county court in Split has now confirmed the legality of the indictment against the long-time mayor of Seget Municipality and former HDZ MP, Vinko Zulim, who is being charged with threats against Slobodna Dalmacija journalist Vinko Vukovic.

The prosecution, without specifying any of the actual identities of the individuals involved, reported that the court had accepted the state attorney's appeal against the earlier decision of the indictment panel of the Split Municipal Court against Zulim, with the explanation that the words uttered were not specified and that the factual description of the indictment didn't represent a serious threat. It was also said that ''there was no intention [that could be taken from his words] of frightening or disturbing Vukovic.

According to the opinion of the indictment panel of the first-instance court, it's an inappropriate and offensive form of communication, and not a serious and specific threat, as was added by the prosecutor's office.

Zulim told the journalist that he knew who he was and where he lived, which I'm not sure could be taken in any other manner than a threatening one. The High Court, the prosecution added, in the explanation of the ruling on the merits of the indictment stated that the indictment contains everything necessary to be able to act on it, including the content of the words which the state attorney considers to be the legal features of the criminal act of threat.

At the same time, the court states that the state attorney correctly indicates in his appeal that the words spoken by the defendant should be viewed in the context of the entire event and that all the words spoken indicate the existence of well-founded suspicion of the alleged criminal act. The prosecution accuses Zulim that during a telephone conversation on January the 20th last year, when outraged by a question about his son's employment in the Seget Municipality, he first used insults in raised tones of voice, and then made a serious threat, which caused the journalist a feeling of anxiety and fear for the safety of himself and his family.

According to the indictment, Vukovic called Zulim to ask him if an individual called ''M. Z.'', whom he states is employed by the Seget Municipality, is in actual fact his son. At that, Zulim burst into anger and told Vukovic that he knew who he was and where he lived, and that he had two little girls. He insulted him and mentioned the possibility of coming to Vukovic's residential address. When the journalist asked what he would do if he came, Zulim told him that he would kiss him on the forehead, according to the indictment.

This particular indictment against Zulim came to the attention of the authorities last summer, and in the autumn of 2022, USKOK also came to suspect him of unjustifiably spending municipal money on the national team in both 2017 and 2018. He was accused of ordering that the municipality of Seget Donji, while he was at its head, issue purchase orders for the consumption of food and drinks from private gatherings in various catering and hospitality facilities, which he gave the green light with his signature, and although there was no basis for this, he ordered such services to be paid for by the municipality.

Based on the purchase orders issued in this way and Zulim's verbal orders, the catering and hospitality facilities issued invoices to the municipality for the services provided. At the same time, according to USKOK, he allegedly wrote explanations for such gatherings with his own hand, claiming that members of various commissions, associations and representatives of state institutions were hosted, when in actual fact they were members of HDZ as the municipal ruling party, as well as individual municipal employees.

Ivan Rimac, a Professor of Law has stated that PM Andrej Plenkovic is ''directly encroaching upon peoples' rights''

Ivan Rimac, a professor from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, analysed the Sortirnica and Agrokor affairs and other current topics from the sphere of justice and legislation on N1 television. Referring to the Sortirnica affair, i.e. the new action of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in which five people were arrested because of the waste sorting plant in Rijeka, Rimac said that all HDZ members probably now feel relieved because they can point the finger at someone else after a lot of fingers having been pointed at them by others.

"Plenkovic directly encroaches on the peoples' rights,'' Rimac believes. When asked if he expected the announcements of changes to the CPC to stop data leakage to be followed through, Rimac said the following:

"The solution offered by Plenkovic is a direct encroachment on peoples' right to be informed about what state services do and how state money is spent. The introduction of such an institute, especially with the slowness of our judicial system, means a practical embargo on the publication of any information about the actions taken by government officials. It is the same as having a censorship of the press. I see nothing further than that that could go in favour of such proposals. I believe that it would be good for judicial processes to make decisions with calm heads, but the public has the right to know what goes on in this regard.''

For more on Croatian politics, make sure to check out our dedicated section and keep your eyes peeled for our Week in Croatian Politics articles which are published every Friday.

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.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Politics section.

November the 14th, 2021 - Former HDZ PM Ivo Sanader is known for having been accused of being involved in multiple scandals and affairs, and his long lasting legal procedures are just as well known to the Croatian public. The Supreme Court, however, has just acquitted him in one affair.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Supreme Court has partially reversed and partially upheld the acquittal of the Zagreb County Court in the case of former HDZ PM Ivo Sanader in the well known HEP-Dioki case along with Ivan Mravko and Robert Jezic. Part of it has become statute-barred (no longer legally enforceable as a prescribed period of limitation has lapsed), and the acquittal of Sanader has been confirmed for the second part of the indictment, the media has reported.

"On the appeal of the State Attorney, ex officio, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia has reversed the acquittal of the Zagreb County Court and dismissed the charge of one criminal offense of inciting abuse of office against two defendants, and upheld the first-instance acquittal for the second offense of incitement to the abuse of office and authority against the same two defendants. The first-instance verdict acquitted the two defendants of the charges of committing the two criminal offenses of inciting abuse of office and authority,'' the Supreme Court said in a statement recently.

Since back in 2012, the prosecution has charged former HDZ PM Ivo Sanader with inciting former HEP CEO Ivan Mravko to pay out a fifteen million kuna loan to Robert Jezic's company (Dioki) and sell electricity below market prices, damaging the state budget by nineteen million kuna.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 16 Oct, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Saturday that he did not consider today's HDZ to be a criminal organisation due to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Fimi Media case, but he noted that PM Andrej Plenković's statement, in which he linked the ruling with Milanović's rhetoric, was "silly".

"I think that it is irresponsible to link the ruling, whereby the Supreme Court actually upheld a lower court's ruling, with my statements. The idea that my rhetoric had influence on the Supreme Court's decision is silly," he told reporters during a visit to Samobor, a town west of Zagreb, where he attended a ceremony marking the town's day.

The Supreme Court last Wednesday partly upheld the verdict following the retrial in the Fimi Media corruption case, under which the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was fined HRK 3.5 million while the former PM and HDZ chief Ivo Sanader had his prison sentence cut from eight to seven years.

Sanader and his co-defendants were charged with siphoning around HRK 70 million (€9.3 million) from state-owned companies and institutions through the Fimi Media marketing agency into the HDZ's slush funds from 2004 to 2009.

Commenting on Plenković's statement of Friday, Milanović said that he had indeed criticised the Supreme Court but that Plenković had confused the cause with the consequence.

Plenković on Friday said, among other things, that he did not know if some judges worked under the pressure of Milanović's rhetoric.

"And then the Supreme Court does what? It takes revenge on the HDZ by listening to me, who had criticised it. I think such statements are for the Logic Olympiad," Milanović said.

He noted that he did not consider Plenković responsible for crime in the HDZ and did not claim that today's HDZ was a criminal organisation.

"You won't hear me say that the HDZ is a criminal organisation. Not all people there are clean today, but today's HDZ has that, too, in its past. Just as the SDP has in its past the fact that it is the successor to the Communist Party," he said, adding that those things should be left to the past and that new people were emerging and answering to voters.

He said that he had been the first in the country to raise the issue of criminal liability of legal entities.

"There was a law from 2003 which envisaged for the first time that kind of legal responsibility. I raised that issue in the parliament, I was not Prime Minister at the time, and, to my surprise, the Public State Attorney launched the procedure and the (Fimi Media) ruling is a result of that. So in a way, I am responsible for the ruling," he said.

Protesters should not rally outside office-holders' homes

Asked to comment on protests held outside the homes of members of the national coronavirus management team, Milanović said that protesters should not do that.

"They are free to disagree with what those people do, but to protest now, after a year and half? They could have done it earlier if they had objections, and they should especially not be doing it outside (COVID-19 response team's members') homes because that way they disturb their neighbours," Milanović said, calling on the protesters to end the protests.

Speaking about the prosecution of crimes committed in the 1991-95 Homeland War, Milanović said that the Croatian judiciary had done its best, notably with regard to the prosecution of members of the aggressor forces.

"Evidently some things are no longer possible due to the passage of time. I am sure the Croatian judiciary does not have an agenda to help the enemy. There are real limitations regarding time, place and facts. I am not satisfied, but on the other hand, a lot has been done so I can say that I am also satisfied," he said.

We have no relations with Belgrade and Serbia

As for people gone missing in the war, Milanović said that Belgrade was familiar with the destiny of close to 2,000 missing persons.

"We will insist on that, we won't let the matter rest just like that," he said, adding that Croatia currently has no relations with Belgrade.

"Relations with all the others are good or very good, they are not good only with Belgrade and those currently in power there," he said.

Milanović announced that he would attend this year's commemoration of the fall of the eastern city of Vukovar.

"This year is different, last year the way things were organised was wrong," he said.

He welcomed the government's decision to limit fuel prices but noted that it would cost.

"The government has the instruments, naturally all of that costs, and one should be aware that producers and distributors who have fixed costs will have to be compensated somehow," he said, estimating that prices of energy products should go down in a few months.

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ZAGREB, 11 June 2021- The open hearing in the Fimi Media corruption case before the Supreme Court ended on Friday with the defence and prosecution presenting their appeals against a non-final ruling handed down by Zagreb County Court, and the Supreme Court ruling is expected within the next month.

The defence attorneys representing Ivo Sanader, a former prime minister and one time leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Jadranka Sloković and Čedo Prodanović, reiterated that in delivering its ruling Zagreb County Court did not take account of the Supreme Court's opinion from 2015 when the highest court in the country quashed the non-final verdict handed down in 2013, stating that Sanader was denied his right to cross-examination as his co-defendants refused to answer his questions.

In November 2020, Sanader was found guilty pending appeal and sentenced to eight years in prison for siphoning money from state-owned companies and institutions. Also convicted in a retrial before Zagreb County Court were former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic and accountant Branka Pavosevic while the party, in whose slush fund some of the siphoned money had allegedly ended up, was found "responsible."

Sanader waiting in jail for several cases to be resolved

One month after the non-final ruling in the Fimi Media case ,the Constitutional Court rejected a complaint by Sanader in the Planinska Street case, in which he has been convicted and is currently serving a six-year prison term. With that ruling by the highest court in the country, Sanader has exhausted all legal means to appeal against decisions before the national courts.

Sanader was convicted of taking a commission of HRK 17.5 million after the state bought a building in Planinska Street in Zagreb that was owned by former HDZ parliamentarian Stjepan Fiolić. Zagreb County Court delivered the conviction in 2017 and the Supreme Court upheld the ruling in April 2019.

In the meantime Sanader is waiting for a decision by the Supreme Court after he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for taking a bribe from the Hungarian energy group MOL. If the sentence is upheld, Sanader will have to pay back €5 million into the state budget.

For more news from Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated news page.

ZAGREB, Dec 13, 2020 - The Constitutional Court rejected the lawsuit by former prime minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Ivo Sanader in the Planinska case, due to which he is serving a six-year prison sentence.

With this decision all legal means of challenging the verdict before national courts have been exhausted.

The verdict in the Planinska case, in which Sanader was charged with receiving a commission of HRK 17.5 million after the state bought a building in Zagreb's Planinska Street from the company of former HDZ MP and butchers chain owner Stjepan Fiolic during his term as prime minister, was handed down by Zagreb County Court in 2017 and upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2019.

The Supreme Court increased Sanader's sentence to six years in prison, after which the former prime minister was sent to Zagreb's Remetinec jail.

In the trial, Fiolic admitted that he brought HRK 10 million and another one million euros (approx. HRK 17.5 million in total) to Sanader's home in a cardboard box. The property of Fiolic's company was purchased by the regional development ministry, led by former minister Petar Cobankovic, who made a plea bargain with the prosecution before trail and was sentenced to one in year in prison. He did not go to prison but did community service.

Apart from them, the trial chamber in this case also convicted Mladen Mlinarevic, for whom it established that he inflated the value of the building in Zagreb's Planinska Street owned by Fiolic before it was purchased by Cobankovic's ministry.

In the rejected constitutional complaint, Sanader repeated that he was a victim of political persecution and that Fiolic and Cobankovic had reached agreements with the prosecution and received lighter sentences. In the complaint, Sanader called Cobankovic a "false witness" who spoke in court as instructed by the prosecution.

He also claimed that the equality of arms principle had been violated as several criminal proceedings had been conducted against him at the same time. In addition to the constitutional complaint, he also filed a motion to delay enforcement procedures and to postpone his imprisonment.

In the meantime, in November, Sanader was sentenced in a retrial to eight years in prison and ordered to return HRK 16 million in the Fimi Media case, after the non-final verdict from 2013 was quashed by the Supreme Court.

Sanader is also waiting for the Supreme Court's decisions on several more non-final verdicts. He has been sentenced pending appeal to six years for taking a bribe from the Hungarian energy group MOL, and MOL CEO Zsolt Hernadi was sentenced to two years in prison. If the verdict becomes final, Sanader will have to return €5 million to the state.

He has also been sentenced pending appeal for taking a kickback from the Austrian Hypo bank, and he has been acquitted pending appeal for the sale of electricity from the HEP provider to a company owned by Rober Jezic at prices below the market price.

ZAGREB, November 13, 2020 - Former prime minister and former HDZ party leader Ivo Sanader was found guilty on Friday pending appeal and sentenced to eight years in prison for siphoning money from state-owned companies and institutions in the Fimi Media case.

Also convicted in a retrial before Zagreb County Court were former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic and accountant Branka Pavosevic while the party, into whose slush fund some of the siphoned money had allegedly ended up, was found "responsible".

Details of the case as well as the sentences of all the indictees will be known after the trial chamber reads out and explains the verdict.

Neither Sanader nor his co-defendants on Friday attended the reading of the verdict in the case in which they were charged with siphoning around HRK 70 million (€9.3 million) from state-owned companies and institutions through the Fimi Media marketing agency. The ten-year case has become a byword for political corruption in Croatia.

Sanader was not present because he is undergoing physical rehabilitation in a spa following surgery and due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The retrial in the case started in 2016, a year after the Supreme Court quashed a sentencing verdict handed down in 2013 by Judge Ivana Krsul.

While USKOK anti-corruption investigators believe that they have proven the responsibility of Sanader, his former party and his co-defendants for corruption also in the retrial, their defence claims there is no evidence of their guilt.

The HDZ's lawyers said the party should be held accountable for a misdemeanor, while Sanader's defence reiterated that the incrimination was based solely on the "contradictory, inconsistent and illogical" testimony of former HDZ treasurer Barisic.

Besides Sanader, Barisic, Pavosevic and the HDZ, also indicted in this case was former government and HDZ spokesman Ratko Macek. Another defendant, Fimi Media owner Nevenka Jurak, died during the retrial.

In the first trial, Sanader was sentenced to nine years and ordered to return over HRK 15 million in illegal gains, while the HDZ was ordered to return more than HRK 24 million and fined HRK 5 million.

In the first trial, Barisic, Pavosevic and Jurak were given milder prison sentences and ordered to return the money. Unlike then, in the retrial they pleaded not guilty. Macek and Sanader were the only ones denying the charges from the start. In the first trial, Macek was given a suspended sentence.

Sanader has been in prison since 2019, serving a sentence in the Planinska corruption case. In the meantime, he has been sentenced pending appeal for taking a bribe from the Hungarian energy group MOL and, in 2018, for taking a kickback from the Austrian Hypo bank. He has been acquitted pending appeal for the sale of electricity from the HEP provider at cheaper prices.

ZAGREB, March 10, 2020 - Presenting his defence in the Fimi Media trial on Tuesday, a former customs administration director and former treasurer of the Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ), Mladen Barišić claimed that everything he did was according to the party leader Ivo Sanader's instructions.

Barišić was presenting his defence in the trial against him for his role in the Fimi Media scandal in which money was siphoned from state institutions through the Fimi Media marketing agency.

"Everything I did as the party's treasurer was done in accordance and agreement with the party's leader. Ivo Sanader was authoritarian and did not allow any self-will and I did what I was instructed to do. I executed the tasks assigned obediently, and believed that I was working for the benefit of the party," Barišić said and added that all financial decisions could not be made by anyone but Sanader.

Barišić added that on one occasion in the presence of former HDZ officials Luka Bebić, Jadranka Kosor and Ivan Jarnjak, Sanader referred to Barišić as "his special officer and right hand man." The defendant told Zagreb County Court that he was surprised that certain individuals in the HDZ "who received extra money, for instance, some women who received allowances for clothing," were now accusing him.

The retrial of the case related to the siphoning of about 70 million kuna (almost €10 million) from state institutions and companies through Fimi Media, which came to be known as a byword for corruption in Croatian politics, was formally commented at the end of January.

From the very beginning Sanader has rejected all the accusations and has claimed that he is the victim of a trumped up political process that his successor Jadranka Kosor and the then chief state prosecutor, Mladen Bajić, launched against him.

Other defendants in addition to Barišić and who are also standing trial in this case, apart from Sanader, who was previously convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison, and the HDZ which was fined HRK 5 million, are former party chief accountant Branka Pavošević, and former party and government spokesman in Sanader's cabinet, Ratko Maček.

The owner of the Fimi Media agency, Nevenka Jurak, who was also a defendant in this case, passed away in November 2019 and the charges against her were suspended.

More news about the Sanader case can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 11, 2020 - The former prime minister and leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Ivo Sanader, on Tuesday once again pleaded not guilty in a retrial in the Fimi Media corruption case, in which he, the HDZ and former party leaders stand accused of siphoning money from state institutions and companies between 2003 and 2009 .

"I am not guilty. I very resolutely reject all the allegations in the indictment which is based on fabrications," Sanader said at Zagreb County Court.

The case was launched ten years ago. Sanader is currently serving a six-year sentence for one of a series of scandals he was involved in.

The retrial for siphoning some 70 million kuna (about €10 million) from state institutions and companies through the Fimi Media marketing agency, a case that has become a synonym for corruption in Croatian politics, was formally launched at the end of January.

All the accused, including the HDZ party and the party's leadership at the time pleaded not guilty of siphoning money into a party slush fund. In the initial trial, which opened in April 2012, Sanader was convicted in 2014, but the Supreme Court overturned the ruling on appeal in 2015.

A retrial which commenced in 2016 was suspended as one of the accused, Nevenka Jurak, who was the owner of the Fimi Media agency, fell ill in July 2018 when Sanader was to have presented his defence. Jurak passed away in the meantime and the trial was suspended.

More news about Ivo Sanader can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 31, 2019 - In the last 20 years Croatia's debt has increased sixfold, HRK 50 billion kuna to nearly 300 billion, the Večernji List daily says in its Tuesday edition, citing figures that show that the HDZ government of Ivo Sanader set the record in borrowing while the most reforms were carried out by the government led by Social Democrat Ivica Račan.

The political rise of Zoran Milanović has refuelled debates about his government having been the most spendthrift. The statistics, however, show a different thing.

The leader in terms of borrowing was the HDZ government led by Ivo Sanader and his successor Jadranka Kosor, during whose four-year term (2008-2011) public debt rose by 95 billion kuna, more than doubling in the two terms, says Večernji List.

Milanović's government increased the debt by around 73 billion kuna, Račan's by around 40 billion and Plenković's by around 15 billion.

Economists, however, warn that adding up public debt is like comparing apples and oranges.

"Macroeconomically, we are talking about different environments. It would be more sensible to judge reforms and their impact on long-term growth," says Željko Lovrinčević of the Institute of Economics.

"The term of the Ivo Sanader government was a period when loans were sought for infrastructure projects that were financed by the Croatian state, and there were both rational and irrational investments," said Lovrinčević.

Milanović's government led the country during the period of a very deep financial crisis, when deficits were a way to maintain the country's financial system and prevent complete chaos.

"It was a period of record-high interest rates, unlike the current situation, with artificially created low interest rates. The two periods are almost incomparable, in terms of both sources of financing and capital prices," said Lovrinčević.

Sanader and Milanović did not have at their disposal EU funds available to the incumbent government, which is macroeconomically the most successful one, if the short term of PM Tihomir Orešković is disregarded, as public debt has been falling as measured by its share in GDP, however, neither Sanader nor Milanović performed well in terms of structural reforms.

"Running the country was most difficult during the term of the Ivica Račan government, it was a heterogeneous coalition that led the country in a transition from a semi-military model of state functioning to a civilian economy. That is when most progress was made in structural reforms," Lovrinčević believes.

Lovrinčević previously compared growth rates in Croatia with rates in other transition countries behind which Croatia lagged by 30%.

Paradoxically, but Croatia lagged the most behind during the term of the first Ivo Sanader government, from 2004 to 2007, when economic growth was 14% lower than in other transition countries, unlike the most successful, Ivica Račan government, during whose term the national economy lagged behind by 2%.

Račan's government raised GDP by around 18% during its term and at the time Croatia's economy grew faster than the economies of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, which from today's perspective looks like science fiction, says Večernji List.

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