The Carinthian parliament's commission of inquiry into the Hypo bank has forwarded questions to Croatian National Bank (HNB) governor Zeljko Rohatinski and it is unknown if the answers will be published, commission chair Rolf Holub told Austrian news agency APA on Wednesday.
The commission will remain interested in Croatia, as the investigation has revealed that operations in Croatia were crucial for the failure of Hypo-Group Alpe Adria (HGAA), APA said.
Holub expects new information from Rohatinski. A catalogue with MPs' questions has already been delivered to the governor, he said. The questions refer, among other things, to possible interventions from Austria and Germany as well as to instructions given to Hypo's Croatian branch.
Holub said the commission would decide whether Rohatinski's answers would be published and if so, when.
Former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was deposed by the commission last week, denying any intervention with the HNB during the sale of HGAA to the Bavarian bank BayernLB in 2007.
Sanader has been in extradition custody in Austria since his arrest on December 10 on a warrant issued by Croatia on suspicion of involvement in corruption. At a hearing yesterday, he would not say whether he agreed to being extradited to Croatia under fast-track procedure. He was remanded in custody until January 27.
Salzburg prosecutor Barbara Feichtinger told the German news agency dpa that, if Sanader objected to the fast-track extradition, he could be turned over in two to three months at the earliest.
Austrian authorities are investigating Sanader on suspicion of money laundering via a Tyrolean bank.
