Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader is not on a vengeance mission, but wants to participate in the proceedings against him without any politicisation, one of his lawyers, Cedo Prodanovic, said on Tuesday after visiting Sanader in Zagreb's Remetinec Prison.
"The message from Mr Sanader is that he has come to Croatia of his own free will, that he is not on any kind of vengeance mission, but that he wants to participate in the criminal proceedings that have been conducted against him for quite some time and on which he has no influence," Prodanovic told numerous reporters outside the prison complex.
Prodanovic said that Sanader wanted to participate in the proceedings "without any high-level politicisation or blame shifting." He announced that Sanader would make his first appearance before investigators from the national anti-corruption office USKOK at 1300 hours on Thursday and would refute their allegations and present his evidence.
Prodanovic said that Sanader was put in the men's ward and not in the women's as speculated by media, that he was alone in his cell and had no contact with other inmates. He said that Sanader was satisfied with the prison conditions because he was alone in his room. He confirmed that Sanader had lost weight as a result of regular gym exercise while in custody in Salzburg and that he was using crutches because his leg was still swollen.
Prodanovic said that the family would not visit Sander until media interest waned.
Prodanovic and another lawyer, Goran Suic, said they would file an appeal against the 30-day detention order that was issued seven months ago when USKOK launched an investigation into Sanader in the Fimi Media case.
When asked if it was true that the other prisoners chanted "thief" to Sanader when he was brought to Remetinec from Austria on Monday night, the lawyers said they had not asked him about it, nor had he told them that.
