A bid for prison freedom from a former Croatian prime minister.
If and when Sanader will be released from the remand detention, after the Constitutional Court overturned his verdict in Hypo and INA-MOL cases, will probably be known by the end of the month. His attorneys Jadranka Sloković and Čedo Prodanović have requested that the Zagreb County Court frees Sanader from the remand detention, reports Vecernji List on August 19, 2015.
The attorneys believe that Sanader should be released because the maximum detention is three and a half years. They believe that all the time Sanader has spent behind bars should be counted towards that limit – his extradition detention in Austria, remand detention for Fimi Media case, obligatory remand detention set after he was sentenced for Hypo and INA-MOL cases and the part of the sentence he has served after the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court. So far, adding up all of the time spent in remand detention in various cases has never been done, so it will be interesting to see what will be the opinion of the judge panel of the Zagreb County Court, which will decide on the request by the defense. If the proposal is rejected, Sanader will not have the right to appeal, but there is always the possibility of filing new constitutional case. The previous practice has taught us that everything is possible.
Sanader was arrested in Austria in December 2010, and he remained in extradition detention until July 2011, when he was extradited to Croatia. Due to the Fimi Media trial, he was in remand detention from July to December 2011, when he was released on bail. He was again detained in November 2012 when he was sentenced in Hypo and INA-MOL cases, and was given a mandatory remand prison. That detention lasted until June 2014, when the final verdict was issued, after which he began to serve his sentence. All in all, Sanader has been behind bars for a little more than three years and seven months. However, the position of the Supreme Court has so far been that time in remand custody for different cases cannot be added up and that the extradition detention and sentences cannot be added up. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court has held in the Glavaš case that any deprivation of liberty can be counted towards maximum custody time, so it will be interesting to see what will the judge panel decide.
