A Zagreb County Court panel of judges on Friday decided to uphold the indictment in the Fimi Media case, in which nine legal and natural persons are charged with siphoning more than HRK 70 million from state institutions and ministries. Among the accused are former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and for the first time, a political party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), of which he was president at the time relevant to the indictment.
The panel of judges, however, did not yet schedule a preliminary hearing at which it should be decided when the trial could commence.
The indictment, written on more than 500 pages, contends that HRK 31.6 million went into the HDZ's slush funds between 2003 and 2009 and that Sanader pocketed HRK 15 million. The other accused are former HDZ officials - treasurer Mladen Barisic, election campaign manager Ratko Macek, and accountant Branka Pavosevic; the owner of the Fimi Media company, Nevenka Jurak; her associates Anita Loncar Papes and Bojan Dimic; and their companies - Fimi Media, Ani-Lon, and Onida.
USKOK contends that HRK 70 million was siphoned from state companies and institutions via the privately-owned Fimi Media company and that the former ruling party used part of it to finance its election campaigns.
This is the third indictment issued against Sanader. The previous two were issued for war profiteering in the Hypo bank loan case and for alleged wrongdoings, including kickbacks in the INA-MOL case. These two indictments were joined and the former premier and HDZ leader is already standing trial for those white-collar crimes.
