In Croatia, the ex-prime minister Ivo Sanader and MOL chief Zsolt Hernadi were found guilty of bribery in the bribery affair surrounding the Hungarian oil company MOL. The regional court in Zagreb sentenced Sanader to six years in prison today. Hernadi, who was tried in absentia, was sentenced to two years in prison. The judgment is not final.
In the reopened trial, Sanader and Hernadi were convicted for agreeing to pay a bribe of ten million euros in exchange for leaving MOL in charge of the Croatian oil company INA, even though the Hungarian company did not have a majority stake. The allegations go back to the time when INA was privatized. MOL acquired the strategic majority in INA in 2009.
Ex-Prime Minister Sanader (2003 to 2009) had already been convicted in this case, but the Constitutional Court overturned the ruling in 2015 and ordered a new trial. Herandi, who has remained inaccessible to the Croatian judiciary to date, was first indicted in the new trial that started in October 2018.
MOL „disappointed“
„We are not surprised, but disappointed that the court came to this decision,“ said MOL spokesman Domokos Szollar in a statement. The verdict was „unfair and completely unfounded“ and cast „dark shadows on the Croatian legal system“, and only two days before Croatia took over the EU presidency under the motto „Rule of Law“. „We will of course appeal, and we are certain that we will ultimately win this legal dispute.“ Sanader’s lawyer also wants to appeal against the verdict – as does the public prosecutor, who found the sentence too mild.
First of all you have to wait until the verdict is in writing, Szollar explained. That would probably only be the case in April or May, only then could one officially appeal against it. The MOL chief, whose contract runs until 2023, had already been acquitted by a Hungarian court in the case – it was „surprised“ that an EU country like Croatia did not recognize the judgment of the Hungarian court. A UN arbitral tribunal had already determined in 2016 that nothing criminal had happened in the matter.
