Jailed Former Croatian PM Demanding Retrial

The lawyers representing jailed former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader have appealed to the Supreme Court for a retrial in the case that saw the disgraced politician sentenced to 10 years jail last November for war profiteering and receiving bribes.

Sanader was found guilty of taking a bribe of 3.6 million kuna (500,000 euros) from Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria in the mid nineties when they entered the Croatian market and also that he had betrayed the country’s national interests by taking a 10 million euro bribe to ensure Hungarian oil company MOL a dominant position in Croatia’s oil giant INA.

Cedo Prodanovic, Jadranka Slokovic and Goran Suic, who are representing Sanader, have appealed the original verdict, saying it should be quashed and a retrial ordered because of ‘significant violations of the Criminal Procedure regulations and due to wrong and incomplete facts’. They want the retrial to be before another panel of judges. The state’s anti-corruption unit USKOK are seeking the maximum 15 years prison sentence.