Kutle tried to justify his failure to attend with medical documentation from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a Zagreb expert, having examined the documentation, concluded that Kutle was fit to stand trial, prompting the judge presiding in the case to set detention yesterday.

"Setting detention also entails issuing an arrest warrant," Kevric said.

Kutle has two days to appeal the detention from the moment he is placed in custody.

Kutle, who is being tried for a number of cases of privatisation crime in the 1990s, has already been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for malfeasance in another case involving the Gradski Podrum company.

That final verdict is expected to become enforceable by the end of this week. It has been made known on the Zagreb Municipal Court's notice board because Kutle was not found at his address to be served with the sentence.

Fifteen days from its being made public on the notice board, the verdict is considered to have been delivered normally and the procedure is launched to enforce it. If Kutle fails to appear before the judge in charge of sentence enforcement, the court may issue an arrest warrant, but this might not be necessary if a warrant will be issued for the aforementioned failure to appear in court.

After his attorneys explained his absence with the medical documentation from Mostar, it became clear that Kutle was in Bosnia and Herzegovina.