ZAGREB, December 31, 2019 - Foreign news agencies on Monday carried reports of a non-final verdict against former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader and Hungarian MOL energy group executive Zsolt Hernadi, sentenced for bribery to six and two years in prison respectively, stressing that the Croatian court did not accept conclusions by an independent UN commission.

Earlier on Monday the former Croatian prime minister and the MOL executive director were found guilty of taking and receiving a bribe in the INA-MOL case.

Explaining the retrial verdict, Zagreb County Court judge Maja Štampar Stipić said Sanader had arranged with Hernadi to give MOL controlling rights in its Croatian peer INA in exchange for €10 million. In doing so, Sanader used his position and authority as prime minister to make it seem that it was necessary to divest INA's gas business and change the shareholders' agreement, the judge added.

The Hungarian news agency MTI carried MOL's comment in which the Hungarian company expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, saying that Hungarian courts as well as the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) established that the law had not been broken in the INA-MOL case.

MOL also claimed that this was not the first unfair trial in Croatia, dismissing the corruption charges and noting that it would continue to defend itself against unfounded accusations.

The Serbian news agency Tanjug, too, carried the comment by MOL, which also recalled that the verdict to Sanader and Hernadi was based on the testimony of only one witness who during the retrial had proved entirely unreliable.

Tanjug also reports that Hernadi continues to enjoy the trust of all MOL Group boards.

The Beta news agency reported that the verdict against the once most powerful Croatian politician and the Hungarian executive was announced in their absence as Hernadi is beyond the reach of Croatian authorities while Sanader stayed in Zagreb's Remetinec prison.

Agence France-Presse quoted prosecutor Tonči Petković as saying that as the highest state official, Sanader had jeopardised Croatia's vital economic interests.

AFP says that Sanader is the highest political official convicted of corruption since Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, but also that the fight against corruption was one of the key factors for Croatia's accession to the EU in 2013.

Reuters quoted Zagreb County Court president Ivan Turudic as saying that a warrant had been issued for Hernadi's arrest and that Hungary should act on it.

The agency recalls that the verdict may be appealed against but also stresses that it is a new chapter in a legal saga that has been going on for more than a decade.

In the initial trial Sanader was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Apart from being tried for receiving a bribe from Hernadi, he was also tried for war profiteering in the Hypo case, namely for receiving a commission from that bank which granted Croatia a loan at the time of the Homeland War. In a retrial he was convicted to two and a half years for that crime, but the time spent in custody was credited to his sentence so he did not have to return to prison.

However, he was again placed in custody in April after the Supreme Court increased his sentence in the Planinska case so he was again behind bars at the time when the verdict in the INA-MOL case was announced.

The trial against Sanader in the Fimi Media case is still under way. In that case, he was originally sentenced to nine years' in prison pending appeal, but the Supreme Court quashed the verdict.

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

As Index writes on the 30th of December, 2019, former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader (HDZ) and Hungarian MOL's main man Zsolt Hernádi have been found guilty of accepting bribes in the INA-MOL case today, for which Ivo Sanader was sentenced to six years in prison, and Hernádi to two years in prison.

Explaining the final verdict, Zagreb County Court Judge Maja Štampar Stipić said that ex PM Ivo Sanader had agreed with Hernádi that he would leave the decisive vote on INA's business to Hungary's MOL for the sum of 10 million euros. In doing so, he used his position and the authority of the Prime Minister to show that it was necessary to separate the gas business and change the inter-share agreement.

The non-binding verdict in the retrial was announced in front of an empty bench for the defendants because Hernádi was unavailable to the Croatian judiciary while Ivo Sanader remained in Zagreb's Remetinec prison.

As he recently underwent surgery, which in the court's view was not necessary, Ivo Sanader was not present at the closing speeches in the case. USKOK (Croatian State Prosecutor's Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption)  then concluded that Ivo Sanader threatened the state's interests by receiving bribes from co-defendant Hernádi, while their defense, on the other hand, argued that there was no basis for the conviction.

According to the final verdict, Robert Ježić's company, which admitted that Ivo Sanader was paid half of the agreed bribe through them, should pay back five million euros to the Croatian state.

Lawyer Jadranka Sloković: We knew it would turn out like this:

"We're not surprised the whole proceeding went this way. The rights of the defendants and the defense were violated during the proceedings. We'll write an appeal, we knew the outcome much earlier. This is a court failure, almost all witnesses were rejected. The verdict is based on the testimony of a person who said she spent all of the money entirely.

Our October appeal was only submitted to the Supreme Court in November, which largely determined the outcome of the trial. I believe the Supreme Court will have a lot of work to do.

The court claims Sanader could have cancelled the operation, but he has been going through court proceedings for 10 years now, he couldn't postpone it because he would then be charged again with obstruction of the procedure,'' Jadranka Sloković said after the verdict.

"Ivo Sanader's expectations are such that he expects nothing from the Zagreb County Court. He's still in rehab," Sloković said.

"We're pleased with what we've achieved. All that we found in the first trial has now been confirmed. As far as the sentence is concerned, it is too mild and we will appeal it," a statement from USKOK said.

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ZAGREB, May 25, 2019 - State Prosecutor Dražen Jelenić said on Friday the state would consider every available option to seize former prime minister Ivo Sanader's illegal gains following his conviction in the Planinska corruption case.

A part of the assets is still frozen and we as the state and the State Prosecutor's Office are interested in the execution of the final sentence, including the seizure of illegal gains, Jelenić told reporters, adding that it remained to be seen how much could be seized from the frozen assets or if another option would be chosen.

He said there was a 15-day deadline for voluntary payment, after which seizure deadlines started running, adding that it was difficult to say how much the whole thing could take.

"We'll see," Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said when asked if the assets could be returned within 15 days, adding that this was in the remit of the State Prosecutor's Office.

Asked if an investigation into leaks in the fake text messages case had given any results, Jelenić said the investigation was confidential.

Asked if Deputy Parliament Parliament Speaker Milijan Brkić and the other three suspects had been or would be interviewed, he reiterated that the investigation was confidential.

Asked about the Agrokor case and the fact that a financial evaluation that is key for completing the investigation into it was not completed this week, as had been announced, Jelenić said the accounting experts had apologised to the relevant prosecutor's office and said they would submit their findings as soon as possible.

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

ZAGREB, May 18, 2019 - A Zagreb County Court panel of judges on Friday rejected a motion filed by the defence for former prime minister Ivo Sanader to release him from investigative custody in the so-called Planinska case.

In their motion, the defence argued that it had not been explained to their client why he was remanded in custody.

Speaking to reporters, defence attorney Jadranka Sloković announced they would file a constitutional complaint.

Sanader was remanded in custody on April 4 after the Supreme Court considered his appeal against the trial court verdict that sentenced him to four and a half years in prison and ordered him to pay back 15 million kuna (2 million euro).

According to unofficial information, the Supreme Court has increased his sentence to six years, and the ruling will be made public only after it has been delivered to the parties involved.

Apart from the former prime minister, the trial chamber in this case also convicted Mladen Mlinarević, for whom it established that he inflated the value of a building in Zagreb's Planinska Street owned by former HDZ MP and businessman Stjepan Fiolić, from whom the regional development ministry, led by former minister Petar Čobanković, purchased the property in 2009.

Čobanković made a plea bargain with the prosecution before the trial and was sentenced to one year in prison. He did not go to prison but did community service.

Mlinarević and Fiolić were each sentenced to one year's conditional imprisonment, which was later replaced with community service.

Fiolić admitted that he helped Sanader with the sale of the property based on a forged appraisal and that he brought 10 million kuna and another one million euros (approx. 17 million kuna in total) to Sanader's home in a cardboard box.

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

ZAGREB, April 12, 2019 - Robert Ježić, the USKOK anti-corruption office's key witness against former prime minister and HDZ president Ivo Sanader in the INA-MOL case, said on Thursday he paid 250,000 euro in 2010 for Sanader's travel expenses at his request as well as the rental of a flat and office space in New York for Sanader's daughter's then boyfriend.

"We entered that expense as expenses for the project of opening our office in New York. The bills were paid by my company ABC Holding, the same company used to buy a bullet-proof BMW for the HDZ," Ježić told the Zagreb County Court, adding that he had documents proving that and that he would submit them at the next hearing.

Ježić said he also paid for many expensive lunches and dinners. Asked why he did not mention this earlier, he said nobody asked him.

Speaking of previously unknown aspects of expense payments, he said that "according to the interrogations so far, it seems that Sanader didn't get anything." "Well, I didn't get anything," Sanader responded, prompting Ježić to ask him, "Then who did?"

The new information on the payment of Sanader's expenses came up after Ježić answered questions by William Boyce, defence counsel for Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of Hungary's MOL energy group. Boyce asked Ježić about the payment of a bribe so that MOL could obtain controlling rights in its Croatian peer INA.

The former prime minister is on trial for taking and Hernadi for giving said 10 million euro bribe via a company owned by Ježić. Hernadi is unavailable to Croatian authorities. This retrial began on 23 October 2018, when Sanader dismissed all the charges, just as he did in the first trial, when Hernadi was not a defendant yet.

Aside from the bribe, USKOK accused Sanader and Hernadi or arranging the divestiture of INA's unprofitable gas business. USKOK demands that the former prime minister, if convicted, pay 10 million euro into the state budget.

More news about the former prime minister can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 5, 2019 - The speaker of the Croatian parliament and secretary-general of the ruling HDZ party, Gordan Jandroković, said on Friday that the Supreme Court conviction of former prime minister Ivo Sanader to six years' imprisonment was proof that the judiciary was impartial and that no one was above the law.

Asked by the press in Zagreb if the ruling was a burden on the HDZ, Jandroković said: "It would be better if there was no such ruling, but I repeat, it is a sentence against one person."

Speaking to reporters during a visit to the eastern city of Osijek, Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said that the sentence was imposed on Sanader as an individual and that it should not be confused with his role as prime minister or the party which he led at the time.

Asked to comment on the claim by Sanader's defence counsel that they had learned of the Supreme Court ruling from the media, Bošnjaković said that he could not comment and that the question should be addressed to the Supreme Court, "which delivered its judgment to the Zagreb County Court, which handed down the first-instance ruling and whose task was to forward the judgment to the State Attorney's Office and the accused."

He added that it was hard for him to say how it happened that media learned of the ruling before one of the parties to the case because he did not know all the facts.

More news on HDZ can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 5, 2019 - Former prime minister and HDZ party leader Ivo Sanader was taken by police on Thursday afternoon to Zagreb's Remetinec prison after earlier in the day the Supreme Court increased his sentence in a case in which he was charged with corruption and the Zagreb County Court issued a warrant for police to take him into custody.

While waiting for police to take him to prison Sanader told reporters that all this was "a show and a politically rigged trial."

"There is no evidence. This is ridiculous, the verdict should have been quashed. This is yet another show. My lawyers are here, if police come for me, I will go... I'm ready for anything and will prove my innocence," Sanader said, adding that during the trial former regional development minister Petar Čobanković read his answers from a notebook in agreement with the prosecution.

Sanader's lawyer Jadranka Sloković said that they had learned of the Supreme Court's decision from the media.

The Zagreb County Court earlier in the day confirmed that it had issued a warrant that Sanader be taken into custody after the Supreme Court increased his sentence in a case dubbed "Planinska" to more than five years.

The Supreme Court today completed its three-day deliberation on appeals against the trial court ruling in this case, in which Sanader was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and ordered to pay back 15 million kuna.

According to unofficial information, the Supreme Court has increased his sentence to six years.

Apart from the former prime minister, the trial chamber in this case also convicted Mladen Mlinarević, for whom it established that he inflated the value of a building in Zagreb's Planinska Street owned by former HDZ MP and businessman Stjepan Fiolić, from whom the regional development ministry, led by former minister Petar Čobanković, purchased the property in 2009.

Čobanković made a plea bargain with the prosecution before the trial and was sentenced to one year in prison. He did not go to prison but did community service.

Mlinarević and Fiolić were each sentenced to one year's conditional imprisonment, which was later replaced with community service.

Fiolić admitted that he helped Sanader with the sale of the property based on a forged appraisal and that he brought 10 million kuna and another one million euros (approx. 17 million kuna in total) to Sanader's home in a cardboard box.

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

ZAGREB, April 4, 2019 - The Zagreb County Court on Thursday confirmed that it had issued a warrant to take former prime minister and HDZ party leader Ivo Sanader into custody after the Supreme Court increased his sentence in a case dubbed "Planinska" to more than five years.

"We have received the Supreme Court's decision to set investigative custody for Sanader because his sentence lasts more than five years, in which case mandatory investigative detention is set," said County Court spokesman Kresimir Devčić.

He added that following the Supreme Court's ruling, the Zagreb County Court issued a warrant for police to take Sanader into custody.

This means that police will look for Sanader at his address, in Zagreb's Kozarčeva Street, and that, if he is not found there, a warrant will be issued for his arrest.

Devčić said that the Supreme Court decision did not specify the duration of sentence, only that it was longer than five years.

The Supreme Court on Thursday completed its three-day deliberation on appeals against the trial court ruling in this case, in which Sanader was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for taking a kickback in the amount of 10 million kuna and one million euros and defrauding the state budget in the amount of 15 million kuna.

According to unofficial information, the Supreme Court has increased his sentence to six years.

Apart from the former prime minister, the trial chamber in this case also convicted Mladen Mlinarević, for whom it established that he inflated the value of a building in Zagreb's Planinska Street owned by former HDZ MP and businessman Stjepan Fiolić, from whom the regional development ministry, led by former minister Petar Čobanković, purchased the property in 2009.

Čobanković made a plea bargain with the prosecution before the trial and was sentenced to one year in prison. He did not go to prison but did community service.

Mlinarević and Fiolić were each sentenced to one year's conditional imprisonment, which was later replaced with community service.

Fiolić admitted that he helped Sanader with the sale of the property based on a forged appraisal and that he brought 10 million kuna and another one million euros (approx. 17 million kuna in total) to Sanader's home in a cardboard box.

Sanader was ordered to give back the 17 million kuna while the 15 million kuna difference between the actual and the appraised value of the property in question was to be compensated jointly by Sanader and Fiolić and his two companies. Fiolić's companies were fined 120,000 kuna.

The former prime minister rejected the accusations, saying that investigators had blackmailed his co-accused. Mlinarević, too, denied the charges.

The trial in the Planinska case lasted from April 2013 to April 2018 and was frequently adjourned due to Sanader's health condition.

Sanader had a series of corruption indictments issued against him.

He was released from custody after the Constitutional Court in 2015 quashed a sentence against him for war profiteering in the Hypo case and for taking a bribe from the Hungarian energy group MOL, ordering a retrial at the Zagreb County Court.

The Supreme Court then quashed a non-final verdict and ordered a retrial in the Fimi Media case in which Sanader and his former party, the HDZ, were convicted for corruption. These proceedings are still underway.

In October 2018, Sanader was sentenced pending appeal to two and half years in prison in the Hypo case and was acquitted of the charges in the HEP-Dioki trial, pending appeal.

Sanader was arrested at his home shortly after 5 pm.

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

Much like an unpleasant odour, former PM Ivo Sanader is back in the limelight, at least that of the court room, once again.

As VLM/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 2nd of April, 2019, two years after the Zagreb County Court announced their verdict in the Planinska affair, former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader is set to appear at the Supreme Court, in a hearing which will deal with his appeals against that previous judgement.

In the Planinska affair, former prime minister Ivo Sanader (HDZ) was handed down a verdict which saw him sentenced to four and half years in prison, while Mladen Mlinarević and Stjepan Fiolić were sentenced to one year in prison each, with that punishment being overturned for community service instead.

Hefty fines were imposed on the two accused companies, the Fiolić butchery was punished with a 50,000 kuna fine, and the the accused livestock reproduction centre was hit a fine of 70,000 kuna. The verdict saw it decided that Ivo Sanader, Stjepan Fiolić, the Fiolić butchery, and the aforementioned centre must jointly return fifteen million kuna, while Ivo Sanader faced more punishment on top of that.

It is anticipated that session of the Supreme Court dealing with the Planinska affair will last three days, during which the defense should explain their appeals. The defendants complained of substantial violations of the criminal procedure and demanded that the verdict be terminated. The main request is for the Supreme Court to revise the previous verdict and subsequent sentence(s).

The maximum prescribed punishment is being sought for former PM Ivo Sanader, which currently stands at ten years behind bars, is because the belief is that this is truly a case of the "worst form of political corruption which he [Ivo Sanader] himself devised, and in its realisation he was insistent and persistent, just as he was persistent and diligent in hiding it". As for Mladen Mlinarević, they believe that he and Ivo Sanader have shown that this was not a case of misconduct but pure corruption as a form of lifestyle.

The Planinska affair gave way to one of Ivo Sanader's most controversial court proceedings to date, which was often interrupted due to his various health problems. Due to these postponements, the trial took place from April 2013 right up until April 2018.

Several years later, Ivo Sanader was placed on trial again in repeated trials for his involvement in the INA - MOL and Fimi Media affairs.

While waiting for the Supreme Court to pass its decision on the appeals to the previous sentence for the Planinska affair, Ivo Sanader was sentenced to two and a half years in prison back in October last year in the Hypo scandal, and his verdict was acquitted in yet another affair involving HEP. If the Supreme Court confirms the previous ruling for the Planinska affair, it means that Ivo Sanader will soon be back behind bars once again. If the judgement is terminated, it will mean that another repeated trial, which in true Croatian fashion, is likely to last for years, will occur.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics page for much more.

Click here for the original article by VLM/Poslovni Dnevnik

ZAGREB, February 20, 2019 - The corruption trial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader and Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of the Hungarian energy company MOL, was adjourned at the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday due to Sanader's health after defence counsel were fined for contempt of presiding judge Maja Štampar Stipić.

Hernadi is beyond the reach of Croatian authorities.

Sanader's counsel Jadranka Sloković requested that the main hearing be adjourned until after it was established if he was fit to stand trial. The defendant said he could not be present for long testimonies for health reasons.

The questioning of witnesses was adjourned until February 25, by which time it will be determined if Sanader is fit to stand trial.

He suggested that a medical expert determine if he could be present at the hearings and for how long in a day. He made this suggestion "so as to avoid being crucified in public."

Due to raised voices and the insulting of presiding judge Maja Štampar Stipić, she fined Sloković and Hernadi's counsel Laura Valković 10,000 kuna.

The court heard Davor Štern, former director general and supervisory board chairman of INA, who said the Croatian energy company's poor business had almost bankrupted it in 2008.

Štern said that when he served as director general from 1997 to 2000, INA was Croatia's most important company and that "it remains so today."

Speaking of INA-MOL relations, he said MOL employees were part of INA's management and that they had more access to public data on INA than the Croats on the management board. "We were not at war with MOL but they didn't act friendly. We saw to the interests of INA's shareholders and the interests of the Croatian government, which appointed us to the supervisory board."

In the INA-MOL case, Sanader was 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 INA to MOL for EUR 10 million and of arranging with Hernadi the divesting of INA's unprofitable gas business.

More news on the corruption in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.