Ivo Sanader acquitted of war profiteering charges

(Patria) - The High Criminal Court (VKS) of the Republic of Croatia rejected the appeal of the state prosecutor's office and confirmed the verdict of the County Court in Zagreb, by which former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was acquitted of charges of war profiteering in the Hypo affair.

Sanader, who is serving a combined prison sentence from the Fimi Media, Planinska, and Ina-MOL cases, was accused of receiving a commission of HRK 3.6 million from the Austrian Hypo bank in 1994 and 1995, as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, during the process of obtaining loans for the purchase of buildings for diplomatic missions.

Given the war period, the indictment charged him with war profiteering, but after years of court proceedings, it was concluded that the received commission does not constitute disproportionate financial gain that would endanger the functioning of the state, which is a prerequisite for the application of the Law on Non-Statute of Limitations for War Profiteering Crimes.

The appellate court, without stating Sanader's identity, specified that it confirmed the acquittal verdict for the criminal offense of abuse of office and authority with the application of the Law on Non-Statute of Limitations for War Profiteering Crimes and criminal offenses from the privatization process.

The VKS explains that Sanader received the disputed commission from the Austrian bank and that, therefore, this is a case of non-pecuniary damage that any public official can cause by committing a criminal offense, regardless of whether they commit it during wartime or peacetime.

Since there is no possibility of applying the Law on Non-Statute of Limitations for this reason, the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution for the criminal offense of abuse of office and authority expired on March 22, 2022.

Therefore, the reasoning on which the first-instance court based its decision is entirely correct and based on the law, the VKS points out.

In 2022, the County Court in Zagreb acquitted Sanader in an non-final verdict, concluding that it was an abuse of office, but not war profiteering. This meant the charges expired.

The High Criminal Court has now confirmed this conclusion, emphasizing that the first-instance court did not commit material violations of criminal procedure and correctly established the factual situation.

Since the commission was not public funds, but was paid from the bank's funds, the condition of acquiring "disproportionate financial gain" was not met, meaning the Law on Non-Statute of Limitations cannot be applied.

As the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution expired on March 22, 2022, the court confirmed that there is no basis for further proceedings.

This is the only remaining proceeding against Sanader, who, after two convictions, was acquitted in a non-final verdict of USKOK's charges of abuse of office and war profiteering.

The former prime minister has been finally convicted in three out of a total of five proceedings against him, while he has been acquitted in two.

Sanader was sentenced to a unified sentence of 18 years in prison, having spent more than half of the imposed sentences in prison.

However, the former prime minister cannot request parole until all proceedings against him are finally concluded.

Sanader has been continuously in prison since April 2019, after several detentions and releases, when the Supreme Court increased his sentence for corruption in the Planinska case to six years in prison.

In that case, the former owner of the meat industry and HDZ representative Stjepan Fiolić admitted to giving the former prime minister a commission of ten million kuna and one million euros.

In mid-October 2021, the highest court partially confirmed the verdict from the retrial in the Fimi media case, according to which HDZ will have to pay a fine of HRK 3.5 million for siphoning money from state institutions and companies, while Sanader's sentence was reduced from eight to seven years in prison, along with the return of illegal gains.

At the end of October 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance verdict by which Sanader was sentenced to six years for accepting a bribe from the head of Hungarian MOL, Zsolt Hernadi, while the unavailable Hernadi was fined two years in prison.

The highest court confirmed another acquittal verdict for Sanader in mid-November 2021, by which he, along with businessman Robert Ježić, was acquitted of selling cheap electricity to Ježić's Dioki to the detriment of HEP.