Before deciding on the sentence that former Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Čačić should serve in Croatia following the Hungarian court’s ruling, the Zagreb County Court has requested additional documentation from their Hungarian counterparts.
In addition to the fact that Čačić’s request to serve his sentence for causing a traffic accident in which two people died is missing from the file that arrived at the Zagreb County Court from Hungary on January 3, Croatian judges have also requested provisions of the Hungarian Penal Code through the Ministry of Justice.
According to the spokesperson for the Zagreb County Court, Krešimir Devčić, the extracts from the Hungarian Penal Code were requested in order to determine the application of our legal provisions. Simplified, the three-member panel that will decide on the sentence needs to find similar legal regulations so that Čačić’s ‘Croatian sentence’ is as similar as possible to the Hungarian one.
The panel will decide on the sentence of the former Deputy Prime Minister behind closed doors. It will not discuss guilt or factual descriptions but only the sentence, which must be in accordance with Croatian laws and judicial practice. There is a possibility of appeal to the Supreme Court against the panel’s decision.
