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.

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.

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Click here for the original article by VLM/Poslovni Dnevnik