Three days before a pre-trial hearing in the Fimi Media corruption case, one of the accused, Anita Loncar Papes, reached a plea agreement with the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Friday, admitting that she had siphoned money out of state institutions and public companies for the then ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party and its former president and prime minister Ivo Sanader.
Lawyer Mitko Naumovski confirmed to the media that his client Anita Loncar Papes had reached an agreement with USKOK, pleading guilty to the crime in exchange for a 11-month prison term. If the Zagreb County Court approves the agreement, she will pay back to the government 2 million kuna she had allegedly "earned" in this case.
The plea agreement also covers her firm Ani Lon, one of the three firms charged in the indictment.
Unofficial sources said that USKOK had also reached a deal with Bojan Dimic, owner of the firm Onida, through which he had siphoned money out of state institutions and companies.
The Fimi Media case is one of the biggest corruption scandals in Croatia. In addition to Sanader and the HDZ as a legal entity, the accused are former senior party officials Mladen Barisic, treasurer; Ratko Macek, government spokesman and HDZ election campaign manager; Branka Pavosevic, accountant; and Nevenka Jurak, owner of the Fimi Media marketing agency, after which the scandal was named.
The pre-trial hearing was scheduled for March 19-21, during which judge Ivana Calic is expected to set a date for the trial. The accused are charged with siphoning off more than 70 million kuna (nearly 10 million euros).
