Croatia's former ambassador to Libya Jovan Vejnovic was handed down a seven-month suspended sentence for abusing his office and procuring alcohol while serving in Libya despite a Prohibition Act.
Vejnovic, who has the right to appeal, will not do prison time unless he commits another crime in the next two years.
Second defendant Miroslav Krpan, an employee of the Crosco company, was found guilty of helping Vejnovic and handed down a five-month suspended sentence, also with a two-year probation period.
The Zagreb County Court panel of judges presided by Sinisa Plesa said Vejnovic and Krpan had violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations under which an embassy can purchase alcohol but only for its own diplomatic staff and not for other physical or legal entities, namely the employees of INA and Crosco in Libya.
The court, however, overruled a request by the national anti-corruption office USKOK to ban Vejnovic from working as an ambassador.
At the trial, which ended after only two hearings, the defendants claimed they never violated the Vienna Convention and that they did the same thing all western embassies in Libya did.
