The former Prime Minister was indicted on two charges. He is accused of taking $690,000 in illegal kickbacks between 1994 and1995 for his part in facilitating a $14 million loan given to the Croatian government by the Austrian Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International AG. During this time, Sanader was a deputy foreign minister.
He was further indicted for accepting bribes from the Hungarian energy giant MOL, in return for securing MOL's control over the Croatian national oil and gas company INA. Sanader is currently under investigation in several other corruption cases. Prosecutors estimate that the combined financial damage as a result of all of the cases amounts to 100 million Croatian Kuna (€34 million).
Sanader has pled not guilty to all charges, and his defense will ask to question ten new witnesses.
Fighting corruption has remained one the European Union’s major conditions for Croatian accession. The country has intensified its anti-corruption efforts since Sanader’s successor Jadranka Kosor took over in July 2009
