Guernsey Press

Former Croatian PM jailed over war profiteering

Ivo Sanader was sentenced to two and a half years following a retrial.

Published

A Croatian court has sentenced former prime minister Ivo Sanader to two and a half years in prison for war profiteering following his retrial in the high-profile corruption case.

The County Court of Zagreb ruled that Sanader also must return about half a million euro (£436,000) in kickbacks he took in a deal with Austria’s Hypo Bank in the 1990s.

The court said Sanader, who was deputy foreign minister at the time, was guilty of war profiteering because he acted for his own benefit rather than Croatia’s during its 1992-95 war.

Ivo Sanader
Sanader served as Croatian PM from 2003 to 2009 (AP)

The sentence was shorter than the three years Sanader had received previously. Sanader’s lawyers said they would appeal, calling the verdict “absolutely baseless”.

Croatian state TV said Sanader was acquitted on Monday in a separate corruption case. Altogether, prosecutors had filed five corruption cases against Sanader since 2010.

The ex-prime minister was the leader of the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union party.

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