Sanader: I am exhausted, I am holding on and I will win, but all this is taking too long

At the preparatory hearing for former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in the Hypo case on Thursday, no date was set for the start of the new trial, and the once most powerful Croatian politician, faced with a series of corruption charges, reiterated that he is convinced he will ultimately “prove his innocence”.

In the Hypo case, Sanader was previously convicted of war profiteering, as he received a commission from the Austrian Hypo Bank in the mid-90s while serving as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, which provided Croatia with a loan during the war years for the purchase of diplomatic representation buildings. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the final verdict in 2014 and requested a new trial at the Zagreb County Court.

Sanader: All this is taking too long

In a statement to reporters outside the court, Sanader said that his proceedings are taking too long, as the criminal prosecution began back in late 2010.

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“The fact is that the proceedings have been separated. If you have multiple criminal offenses attributed to you and they are being conducted before one court… then logically it should be combined into one proceeding because they are similar criminal offenses. In my case, the opposite is happening; they are being separated. Here we had a case where, at the beginning seven years ago, this Hypo case was combined with Ina-Mol. After the Constitutional Court annulled those decisions and returned it to the County Court, the State Attorney’s Office appealed, and now the proceedings are back again, and I wonder why. I am exhausted, I am holding on and in the end, I will win, but the fact is that all this is taking too long,” said Sanader.

He reiterated his earlier claims that all charges against him are fabricated. “In every case, there is one person who accuses, and previously they are thrown into Remetinec and blackmailed: ‘You know what you need to say against Sanader and you will get out’… this is the case in all instances,” asserted Sanader.

“In the end, it will turn out as I have said from the beginning, that I am innocent,” added the former prime minister, who currently has only one non-final verdict in the Planinska case after a series of court proceedings, due to receiving a commission after the Ministry of Regional Development purchased the building of HDZ representative Stjepan Fiolić.

>>> Planinska case: Sanader sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, Fiolić and Mlinarević offered community service

Sanader’s lawyer Jadranka Sloković stated that at the hearing “the basic remarks of the State Attorney’s Office regarding the constitutional ruling that returned the case to this court were presented,” and that they “debated” the existence of the criminal offense of war profiteering.

“We discussed whether the absolute statute of limitations occurred before the constitutional amendment on war profiteering in 2010 was made. This is something that the entire panel will have to decide, as an individual judge at the preparatory hearing will certainly not decide on this. Therefore, we will see what the court’s position will be,” added Sloković.

She also mentioned that the defense presented its evidence, just as the prosecution presented theirs, and that a decision on the evidence will be made later.

Contested statute of limitations and characteristics of war profiteering

Sloković asserted that the defense will repeat its positions in the opening statements at the beginning of the new trial, and the court will decide whether it concerns a relative statute of limitations regarding the criminal offense of war profiteering, as well as what the characteristics of that criminal offense are, “which, according to the Constitutional Court’s opinion in the previous ruling, were not fulfilled, or were not considered.”

>>> Legal team: Sanader is satisfied, we have a psychological advantage

Sanader also added that in Croatian judicial practice “there is no, and the decision of the Constitutional Court speaks to this, accurate description of the criminal offense of war profiteering.”

However, Sanader claims that regardless of the legal issues that his lawyers are addressing, he “has nothing to do” with taking a commission, or war profiteering.

“I have nothing to do with that criminal offense, I did not commit it, there is even evidence in the file that witnesses spoke about, that two foreign ministers, the then Austrian Alois Mock and our Mate Granić, agreed that Hypo Bank would come to Croatia and provide a loan. The then Prime Minister Valentić said that the loan was obtained under conditions that were twice as favorable as those prevailing in the market. The market conditions were 18 percent interest, and the ministry received it at eight percent. Who took what commission… and from what the bank could finance is a big question. Who took it, I have no idea, and whether someone took it, I have no idea. I did not, and this is simply a constructed case that is similar in many aspects to these others. I assert that I am innocent regardless of these facts about the statute of limitations and the non-existence of a description of the crime of war profiteering,” concluded Sanader.

>>> The trial for the Planinska affair begins

Uskok prosecutor Vanja Marušić, on the other hand, asserted that in the Hypo case, there is “certainly no statute of limitations.” “After the final court decision on this case where the highest court in the country confirmed the indictment for this case, that is, the verdict issued, today the preparatory hearing was held for the third time after the annulment decision. We presented our evidentiary proposals, the panel will decide on them, and after that, a hearing will be scheduled,” said the prosecutor.