Former Croatian PM Sanader to be released on bail after all?
The judge panel of the Zagreb County Court decided that the former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader can get out of prison on a bail worth 12.4 million kuna which will be covered by apartments and houses that have been offered by his wife and friends. The prosecution has announced an appeal against the decision, because they consider that one the offered properties was built illegally, while others are of doubtful value. The appeal will be decided by the Supreme Court, reports Novilist on October 27, 2015.
Having rejected two previous proposals for Sanader’s bail, the judge panel on Tuesday decided that the former prime minister can be set free if he offers as a bail the properties owned by his wife, former Parliament speaker Luka Bebić, former HDZ’s member of parliament Jerko Rošin and Mario Zubović, and Jerko Duško Suić.
However, the acceptance of the bail does not mean that Sanader will automatically be freed from the Remetinec prison where he has been held since November 2012 when he was first sentenced. That verdict in the cases of Hypo and INA-MOL has been subsequently reversed. Previously, Sanader was detained in Austria in 2010 and extradited to Croatia in July 2011, when he remained in Remetinec until December when he was released on bail worth also 12.4 million kuna.
Before Sanader’s release, the decision of the judge panel must be sent to his lawyers and prosecution. Only then the mortgage will be registered on offered properties. Then, Sanader will be called to the court to officially promise not to escape.
Since the Constitutional Court during the summer overturned the conviction of former prime minister for war profiteering in the Hypo and INA-MOL cases, Sanader no longer has any final or preliminary verdicts against him. He is still being tried in a series of trials concerning several corruption affairs which allegedly occurred during the time he was Croatian prime minister.
