Preliminary hearing for the new trial in the Fimi Media case will be held on Monday.
After the Supreme Court last year annulled the preliminary verdict against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, HDZ and other defendants in the Fimi Media case, the Zagreb County Court will on Monday hold a preliminary hearing for a new trial in the biggest corruption scandal in Croatian politics, reports Jutarnji List on May 15, 2016.
At the preliminary hearing, Judge Irena Kvaternik will decide on the admissible evidence, but should also set the start date for the new trial against Sanader and his former party which the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) has charged with taking more than 70 million kuna from state institutions and companies through Fimi Media marketing agency.
In the annulled verdict, Sanader was sentenced to nine years in prison and the return of 15.27 million kuna which he had gained illegally, according to the opinion of the Zagreb County Court. HDZ was fined with five million kuna and was also ordered to return 24.2 million kuna.
In addition to Sanader and HDZ, other defendants were also found guilty: former party treasurer Mladen Barišić, former party accountant Branka Pavošević, and the owner of the Fimi Media marketing agency Nevenka Jurak.
Sanader’s former spokesman Ratko Maček was given a suspended sentence, and he is the only one who has not appealed the verdict.
In its March 2014 verdict, Judge Ivana Čalić pointed out that the consequences of corruption committed by the group would be long felt in public companies that had been for years treated “as personal ATMs”.
Ivo Sanader, who was Croatia’s Prime Minister until 1 July 2009 when he resigned under the still unexplained circumstances, is a defendant in several ongoing corruption cases, but so far he has not been found guilty in any of them.
