Defence request rejected: Ivo Sanader remains in prison

The defence's proposal to release Ivo Sanader from investigative detention has been rejected, and the former prime minister remains in Remetinec until further notice, Croatian media report, as carried by the Patria news agency.

The non-trial panel of the Zagreb County Court today discussed the request by the defence of former prime minister Ivo Sanader to lift his investigative detention during the trial in the Fimi Media case, i.e., to allow him to defend himself from freedom.

Sanader's defence sought his release because the legal deadline of three and a half years, which is the maximum duration of investigative detention, had expired. The Constitutional Court overturned the final verdicts in the Hypo and INA/MOL cases, returning the proceedings to the beginning.

Until then, Sanader had been serving an 8.5-year prison sentence, and after the Constitutional Court's decision, he was returned to the regime of investigative detention imposed in the Fimi Media affair.