NOVANEWS
Global media on Tuesdays carried the news about the guilty verdict against former Croatian Prime Minister and former head of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Ivo Sanader.
“The conservative HDZ, which ruled Croatia for 16 of its 22 years of independence, became the first political party sentenced for corruption,” Reuters said
France Presse reported about about the latest verdict against Sanader, recalling that he was already sentenced to 10 years’ jail in another corruption trial in 2012 for taking bribe in order to secure the sale of the Croatian oil company INA to the Hungarian oil giant MOL.
The Austrian news agency APA said Sanader was once again found guilty of corruption, noting that at the trial dubbed Fimi Media after the marketing agency through which money from state owned companies was siphoned, it was ruled that the HDZ must pay back the financial gain of 24.2 million kuna obtained through commission of the crime. APA cited the incumbent HDZ president, Tomislav Karamarko, as saying that the party would appeal.
The Slovenian news agency STA reported that once the most powerful Croatian politicians Sanader and the HDZ, the first political party sentenced for corruption, must pay back the stolen money, adding that the verdict in this biggest graft scandal could be appealed.
If the sentence is upheld by a higher court, Sanader will have to pay back 15.27 million kuna which the trial court said was gained illegally, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported adding that the court also found guilty were former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic, former HDZ chief accountant Branka Pavosevic, Fimi Media owner Nevenka Jurak, while former HDZ and government spokesman Ratko Macek was given a one-year sentence suspended.
The money that Sanader has to pay back will be taken from his blocked accounts and from the accounts of members of his family, another Serbian news agency, Beta, said.
“A court in Croatia on Tuesday convicted a former prime minister of siphoning millions in state money while in power, and sentenced him to nine years in prison as part of efforts by the European Union’s newest member to root out corruption,” the Associated Press wrote.
“Croatia’s ex-prime minister Ivo Sanader has been found guilty of embezzling millions of euros in public funds while in power and sentenced to nine years in jail, his second graft conviction in two years. The two-year-long trial, which also found the the former ruling HDZ party guilty of the same charges, was labelled here as the most important corruption case since the former Yugoslav republic’s 1991 independence,” the Australian SBS broadcaster reported.
The news about the verdict for Sanader was carried by Finland’s YLE television, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper the Dutch Telegraph, the Vietnamese VTV television, the Italian ANSA news agency, the Czech CTK news agency, the Polish PAP news agency, Austrian Kleine Zeitung newspapers, the Hungarian MTI news agency, the Slovakian TSAR, etc.
