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.

ZAGREB, February 4, 2019 - The key prosecution witness in the retrial in the INA-MOL bribery case against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader at Zagreb County Court on Monday repeated his previous testimony, saying that he had received 5 million euro to his company's account that the Hungarian MOL oil company was to have deposited to be handed over to Sanader.

"In early 2009, Sanader told me that he expected transaction of 10 million euro from MOL and instructed me to see how to arrange the receipt," Ježić said. After that, nothing happened until May 2009 when, the witness alleged, he saw MOL's CEO Szolt Hernadi and oil consultant Josip Petrović in Government House who had met with Sanader before him.

Ježić said that in that occasion he told Sanader that "nothing has been agreed to yet," after which Sanader presumably called Petrović, who returned to the prime minister's office together with Hernadi. Ježić said that he was in the adjacent room but recognised Petrović's voice and a few minutes later when they left, Sanader told Ježić that "everything was alright," and that part of the money would be paid immediately and the rest would be paid by the end of the year.

Two Cyprian companies deposited a total of 5 million euro, Ježić said and added that after Sanader had stepped down and when the media started reporting about the relationship between his government and MOL, Ježić realised what this was about.

He allegedly told Sanader then that he refused to accept the other 5 million euro, which Sanader "took calmly."

The retrial against Sanader and Hernadi, in absentia, opened on October 23 last year, with Sanader dismissing all the charges, just as he had the first time around. Hernadi had not been charged in the original trial.

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

After a decade of silence and complete inactivity, the Croatian Government is moving once again towards the temptation of a highway construction project towards Dubrovnik, a move initially started by former PM Ivo Sanader.

As Kresimir Zabec/Novac writes on the 2nd of February, 2019, after a rather unnecessarily lengthy and of course unclear title, the conclusion of the ''study documentation for the road connection of southern Dalmatia to the motorway network system of the Republic of Croatia from the Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge and from the Doli junction to the City of Dubrovnik'' (yes you can take a breath now), which was adopted during Friday's Government session held in Dubrovnik, has actually led back to the beginning of re-activating the old plan to build a highway to Dubrovnik.

The last time constructing a highway to Dubrovnik was mentioned was way back in 2009, ten whole years ago, when a construction contract worth 3.675 billion kuna was signed in Osojnik in the presence of the controversial former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, an amount which didn't include the VAT for the planned Doli - Dubrovnik section. Although the contracts were indeed signed, the money for this project was never secured, therefore the works never started and all in all, time went by and people simply forgot about it for the most part.

Although there are permits, projects and designs from that time that still exist and could be acceptable today, Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) will spend 4.06 million kuna this year to take a better look at the southern Dalmatian transport system in the area of ​​Dubrovnik-Neretva County and its link with the existing highway network, and determine the feasibility of any highway construction from the existing Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge, and then from Doli to the City of Dubrovnik. They'll also rule whether or not it is simply better to use the highway through neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

EU co-financing

Croatia's Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, has already jumped the gun when it comes to the talks held on Friday, stating that the Ploče - Dubrovnik motorway will be built, but the question is when. He is counting on the EU being prepared to co-finance the project in the next operational period. However, some insist that a study is needed because the road image itself has changed over the past ten years, not only in southern Croatia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The motorway was built behind Ploče and the where the future Pelješac bridge will be, in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, the construction of part of the Vc corridor from Počitelj to the border with Montenegro through Popovo polje has also begun.

Compared to ten years ago, the highway would now be changed somewhat. Back then, the route went from Ploče to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum and then continued on the other side down south to Dubrovnik.

It was estimated that eighty kilometres of highway from Ploče to Dubrovnik could cost around 732 million euros.

Today, it is assumed that the direction would go from the current Karamatići junction to the Pelješac junction, from where traffic will go down to Pelješac bridge. That equals approximately twenty kilometres of brand new highway sections. The traffic would continue along the new Pelješac road to the Doli junction, and from there 29.6 kilometers of highway would be built leading down to Dubrovnik.

According to the old 2009 project, a total of thirty objects needed to be built, of which there were ten viaducts, nine tunnels, and eight underpasses. Back then, the price of one kilometre of construction was 16.5 million euros without VAT, equalling a total of almost half a billion euros without VAT. The price of the construction of the highway from Karamatići to Pelješac is as yet unknown, but this section is also a very demanding part of the project as the route passes through the Neretva valley, so a high level of environmental protection will be required. Owing to all of the above, estimates are that the entire highway from Ploče down to Dubrovnik could stand at a massive 800 million euros.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated lifestyle and politics pages. If it's just Dubrovnik and the extreme south of Dalmatia you're interest in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow.

Click here for the original article by Kresimir Zabec for Novac.jutarnji.hr

ZAGREB, January 4, 2019 - The anti-corruption agency USKOK appealed on Friday against the Zagreb County Court ruling under which former prime minister Ivo Sanader was guilty of war profiteering because in war time he received kickbacks from Austria's Hypo bank which gave Croatia a loan to purchase embassy buildings.

At the time, in his capacity as deputy foreign minister in charge of negotiations to secure a loan from Austria's bank, Sanader had taken advantage of the state of war to make financial gain for himself.

"The defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for war profiteering. USKOK believes the sentence is too lenient and the Zagreb County Court did not acknowledge aggravating circumstances to the extent it should have, while at the same time acknowledging mitigating circumstances," USKOK said in a press release.

In the Hypo case, Sanader was accused of taking 3.6 million kuna in kickbacks when he was deputy foreign minister, after Austria's Hypo bank gave Croatia a loan to buy diplomatic office buildings. At the time, Croatia was in the midst of war, so Sanader was also accused of war profiteering.

At the end of the trial, Sanader said he was not a war profiteer. The prosecution said the opposite, claiming in closing arguments that war profiteering had been proved and that he had been downplaying his role the whole time.

Sanader was already sentenced in this case, when he was also sentenced for taking a bribe from MOL director Zsolt Hernadi in exchange of management rights in INA. However, the Constitutional Court quashed the ruling in the Hypo case and requested a retrial.

The quashed sentence was the first sentence for war profiteering delivered after the Constitutional Court ruled that there was no statute of limitations on that crime. Quashing it, the Court said the Zagreb County Court and the Supreme Court did not establish if the statute of limitations had run out when Sanader was accused and that they failed to enforce a more lenient law.

More news on former prime minister Sanader can be found in our Politics section.

ZAGREB, October 22, 2018 - Former prime minister and former HDZ president Ivo Sanader was found guilty of war profiteering on Monday in a Hypo case retrial and sentenced to two and a half years pending appeal. Zagreb County Court judge Jasna Galešić said Sanader must return 3.6 million kuna into the state budget.

ZAGREB, October 16, 2018 - A verdict against former prime minister Ivo Sanader in the retrial in the Hypo case, in which he is accused of abuse of office and war profiteering and which is just one of the trials conducted against him since he stepped down, will be delivered on October 22.

ZAGREB, April 26, 2018 - Former Foreign Minister Mate Granić on Thursday testified at the retrial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader in the Hypo Bank case, reiterating his previous testimony, namely that Sanader, who is on trial for war profiteering over the alleged bribe taking, was in charge of the negotiations with Austrian Hypo Bank about a loan to Croatia for the purchase of embassy residencies in the mid-1990s.

ZAGREB, March 23, 2018 - Former prime minister Ivo Sanader again pleaded not guilty to charges of war profiteering at the start of a retrial in the Hypo corruption case on Friday.

ZAGREB, March 21, 2018 - Long-standing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) official and former Speaker of Parliament Vladimir Šeks said on Wednesday at the trial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader and the HDZ in the Fimi Media case that he had never heard about slush funds or cash payments in the party, and blamed the then party secretary general Ivan Jarnjak for the trial against the HDZ, saying that Jarnjak accused the party to "remove any and all responsibility from himself."

ZAGREB, March 2, 2018 - Zagreb County Court on Friday again upheld the indictment against former prime minister Ivo Sanader and the former owner of the Dioki petrochemical company, Robert Ježić, for the sale of cheap electricity to Dioki.