Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has been found guilty of war profiteering in the Hypo Alpe Adria Bank case and of bribe taking in the INA-MOL case and has been sentenced to a single prison term of 10 years, the Zagreb County Court ruled on Tuesday. He has a right to appeal.
Sanader was given a sentence of three and a half years for receiving a commission of 3.6 million kuna (480,000 euros) in 1994, which qualifies as war profiteering because at that time Croatia was at war. He received seven and a half years for taking a bribe from the CEO of the Hungarian oil company MOL in exchange for ensuring it controlling rights in the INA oil company.
The panel of judges presided over by Judge Ivan Turudic ordered him to pay back 41.1 million kuna (5.4 million euros).
The court found that Sanader had received five million euros from MOL, while prosecutors claimed he had taken twice that amount.
The former prime minister took the sentence calmly, without showing any emotion. After the hearing he is expected to be taken to Remetinec prison.
