The state prosecutor, after one year of deliberation, once again filed an indictment against former prime minister and Croatian Democratic Union president Ivo Sanader on suspicion that, together with the former owner of the Dioki Group, Robert Jezic, in 2008 he incited the then CEO of the national electricity provider HEP, Ivan Mravak, to pay Jezic's companies a HRK 15 million loan and to sell them electricity for a price below the market value.
The loan was approved by Mravak without the knowledge of HEP's management board. It was, however, repaid so HEP was defrauded of HRK 3.8 million. The Dioki group, according to the prosecution, illegally "saved" HRK 3.83 million.
The prosecution filed an almost identical indictment last year but withdrew it and has now re-submitted it with additional expert opinions.
This is the fifth indictment against Sanader, who was once the most powerful man in Croatia, and is currently being considered by Zagreb County Court. Sanader's defence counsel has not yet seen the indictment.
Sanader was questioned with regard to this case in February last year and rejected all the suspicions.
Mravak, however, admitted to the crime, while Jezic at first denied the allegations but in the meantime became the prosecution's key witness in the INA-MOL and Hypo Bank corruption cases, for which the former PM was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Jezic also testified in the Fimi Media trial, the largest corruption scandal in Croatian politics in which the HDZ and its former officials are charged with syphoning money from public companies that ended in a party slush fund but also in Sanader's pockets.
Sanader is also being tried for an illegal sale of an office block for the ministry of agriculture for which he allegedly received HRK 17 million in commission. Former agriculture minister Petar Cobankovic admitted to his involvement in the deal and was sentenced to one year in prison which he is serving by doing community service.
