Croatian Ex-PM Denied Bail

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A Croatian court denied bail yesterday to former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.  The court rejected a substantial offer of $2.3 million cobbled together by the ex-PM’s friends and family.  Judge Kresimir Devcić of the Zagreb County court said Sanader could not be granted bail because there was a potential that he would flee the country. The former Prime Minister’s trial, set to start on October 28, will be the first trial for war profiteering in Croatia since the country became independent in 1991. Sanader is also the first Croatian Prime Minister to face corruption charges. He was elected to two terms in 2003 and 2007, but abruptly resigned in 2009, offering no explanation. He was arrested in Austria in December and extradited back to Croatia in July.

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October 18th, 2011
Banking Oil and Gas

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