The defence team for former Prime Minister and former president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Ivo Sanader has asked the Supreme Court to quash the non-final verdict against this once most powerful Croatian politician and order a retrial on charges of war profiteering in the Hypo case and kickbacks from the Hungarian oil company MOL in exchange for management rights in the Croatian oil company INA.
Apart from asking for a retrial before another panel of judges, Sanader's defence also asks for a leaner prison sentence. Sanader was sentenced to ten years in jail last November.
Explaining the ruling at the judgement-delivering hearing, Judge Ivan Turudic said Sanader was a war profiteer and a person who betrayed national interests to satisfy the basest of motives. The judge also said that Sanader's associates from the government and the HDZ party had been enabling him.
Sanader's lawyers Cedo Prodanovic, Jadranka Slokovic and Goran Suic said in the appeal that the verdict should be overturned and a retrial ordered over significant violations of the Criminal Procedure regulations and due to wrong and incomplete facts.
The most contentious fact in the defence's opinion is the court's dismissal of a number of witnesses for the defence while those accusing Sanader by untrue testimonies were taken into account.
