The Croatian parliament on Friday confirmed decisions by its Privileges and Credentials Commission (MIP) stripping former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader of immunity from prosecution, as requested by the anti-corruption investigative agency USKOK which wants to launch criminal proceedings against Sanader for wrongdoing in the cases of Hypo Bank and the INA oil company.
Since MIP made the said decisions at the time when the parliament was not in session, MPs today formally confirmed the decisions at a plenary session.
At the beginning of September, MIP granted USKOK's request to strip Sanader, an independent member of Parliament, of immunity so that he could be prosecuted on suspicion of war profiteering.
USKOK accuses Sanader of abusing office as a deputy foreign minister in 1994 and 1995 and taking HRK 3.6 million in kickbacks for a loan the government obtained from Austria's Hypo Bank.
He is indicted for abuse of office as defined by legislation which says that there is no statute of limitations on war profiteering and wrongdoing in the process of ownership transformation and privatisation.
The Zagreb County Court will decide later in the day whether to uphold or dismiss the indictment, the first one against the former PM.
The parliament confirmed MIP's decision stripping Sanader of immunity for the purpose of launching criminal proceedings against him on the suspicion that he took 10 million euros in bribes from MOL so that the Hungarian oil company could acquire management rights in INA.
This indictment, issued last week, also charges Sanader with having agreed, for the said bribe, the divestiture of INA's gas business.
MPs today also confirmed MIP's decision stripping of immunity Croatian Democratic Union member of Parliament Vedran Rozic, a former footballer and official of the Split soccer club Hajduk, who was indicted by the Split County Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of wrongdoing in that club.
