Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Monday commented on the latest indictment issued against him, saying that it was yet another in a series of rigged proceedings in Chief State Attorney Mladen Bajic's crusade against him.
"In the Planinska case I stand by what I told USKOK. It is yet another rigged indictment. Pressure is being exerted, through lawyers or some other people, on the witnesses who initially said that I had nothing to do with it. After the pressure and blackmail, they are now changing their statements and are accusing me. I think Mladen Bajic is running a crusade against me and he will lose it," Sanader told reporters while leaving the Zagreb County Court building where he had attended a hearing in another corruption case.
The other accused in the Planinska case are former Regional Development Minister Petar Cobankovic, former Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) member of Parliament Stjepan Fiolic and his butcher's retail company Mesnice Fiolic, and the CEO of the consulting firm Inzenjerski Biro, Mladen Mlinarevic.
The national anti-corruption office USKOK claims that Fiolic sold a building in Planinska Street in Zagreb in 2009 to the Ministry of Regional Development for a considerably higher price than the going market rates and that it was done with the help of Sanader, Cobankovic and Mlinarevic, whose firm assessed the value of the building. The ministry paid HRK 79.9 million for the building, more than double its actual value.
