Zagreb County Court Judge Ivan Turudic told Croatian Television on Friday night that he did not sentence Former Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Damir Polancec under political influence and that this could be concluded only from Polancec's statement, which was a direct insult of the court.
After being sentenced to 15 months in jail for paying attorney Petar Miletic half a million kuna (EUR 68,500) in budget funds to write an unnecessary study, Polancec issued a notarised statement about his meetings with officials of the ruling HDZ party since coming out of prison on July 22.
Polancec says in the statement that Deputy Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks told him what sentence he would be given even before it was handed down and that he asked him to accuse former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
Turudic said he was very surprised by Polancec's statement that the sentence had been reached elsewhere and not in court.
"He was in court... for the duration of the entire proceedings and I'm sure that the sentence was reached solely in court," said Turudic.
"Defendant Polancec is entitled to defend himself as he wishes, but he isn't entitled to make insults," he said, adding that Polancec's statement was a direct insult of the panel of judges in his case.
Turudic said it was very unfair to attack after the main hearing without any proof.
"Polancec and his attorney Anto Nobilo had the chance to request that I be removed if they felt that I was biased."
Turudic said he and Seks were good acquaintances but that they spoke very rarely.
Asked if the sentence against Polancec would have been milder had he accused Sanader, Turudic said those were hypothetical matters. He recalled that Sanader was not indicted in this case or proposed as a witness and that Polancec had the chance to propose him as a witness.
