The Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) has ordered an investigation of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, asking the police to arrest him and the Zagreb County Court to put him in investigative prison, the State Attorney's Office (DORH) said on Thursday evening.
Zagreb County Court investigating judge Kresimir Devcic is expected to decide on the request later in the evening.
DORH said in a statement that these steps were necessary so that an international arrest warrant could be issued and an extradition warrant could be sent to a country where he would be arrested.
The Croatian Parliament approved DORH's request for Sanader's arrest at 5pm, lifting his parliamentary immunity and making his arrest legally possible, USKOK said.
USKOK dismissed as untrue the claims that the police and the State Attorney's Office had failed to take the necessary steps to prevent Sanader from leaving the country. It said that under the Constitution a member of Parliament may not be detained or criminally prosecuted without the approval of the Croatian Parliament.
According to the DORH's request for criminal prosecution, Sanader is suspected of conspiracy to commit crime and of abuse of office.
However, it was not clear in which criminal cases he was a suspect. According to unofficial sources, Sanader is suspected of siphoning money from government departments and public companies through the privately-owned marketing firm Fimi Media, and in the case of illegal transactions between the state power company HEP and DIOKI.
