Sanader claims he was not a witness for MOL, but for the truth. “There was no bribe”, he says.
Ivo Sanader, former Croatian prime minister, is a witness for MOL in the arbitration proceedings between Croatia and the Hungarian oil company in the case of INA. Sanader’s lawyer Jadranka Sloković said that that the former Prime Minister did not go to London at an invitation of the parties to the proceedings, but at an invitation of the tribunal itself, reports Večernji List on April 15, 2016.
“I am not a witness for MOL, but for the truth. I was invited to come to London by the president of the Arbitration Tribunal, and the arbitration proceedings are being conducted at the request of former Prime Minister Zoran Milanović’s government. They have accused me that I had received bribes, and have accused MOL that it had given me bribes. This is not true and has not been proven in any Croatian court. There was no bribe at all. I say that today, I said it yesterday, and I will say it tomorrow”, said Sanader on Thursday evening.
Sanader is accused of signing a disputed shareholders agreement due to bribery. It enabled MOL, despite not having a majority stake in INA, to have the management rights in the Croatia’s largest company. If Croatia were to lose the arbitration proceedings, it could have to pay damages to MOL worth more than five billion kuna.
Sanader travelled to London in the company of his lawyers Čedo Prodanović and Jadranka Sloković. This is Sanader’s first trip abroad after five years when Austria extradited him to Croatia.
After five years of the trial against Sanader in this case in front of Croatian courts, the verdict in the case of INA has been annulled and the trial has been returned to the beginning. There are several other trials against Sanader taking place in the Croatian judiciary, but so far not a single one concluded with a final verdict.
