The Zagreb County Court on Friday reaffirmed the indictment against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and former owner of Dioki, Robert Ježić, for the sale of cheap electricity to Dioki, despite the defense’s request to suspend the proceedings following the death of former HEP director Ivan Mravak, who had previously admitted that Sanader had encouraged him to favor Ježić’s company.
– The indictment council confirmed the indictment against Sanader and Ježić on the grounds that, although Mravak’s testimony cannot be used, it can still be read, and the court council will assess whether it carries any weight, said Sanader’s attorney Jadranka Sloković after the indictment was confirmed.
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She added that the indictment council took a position contrary to that of the first indictment council, even though both times the council was composed of the same members.
– The first time they said that the indictment against the first accused was based solely on Mravak’s testimony, and now they have said that regardless of the fact that this testimony is formally absent, or the question is how it can be used, the court will assess how it will be used during the proceedings, said Sloković.
In this case, Sanader was accused in 2012 of encouraging Mravak to pay a loan of 15 million kuna to Ježić’s company and to sell electricity below market price.
She also stated that they were not surprised by the decision and that it is evident that “Sanader cannot win any decision in his favor in this court.” Sloković also stated that the defense will insist in further proceedings that Mravak’s investigative testimony cannot be the basis for a conviction.
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– He was not questioned by the defense and that cannot be used. This is undisputed, as stated by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and our practice. Therefore, a court decision cannot be based on that testimony, and there is no other evidence that Sanader gave any orders in the file. In my opinion, the only thing that can be ruled here is an acquittal, I just don’t know why it should take another five years to walk through the court in this case, concluded Sloković.
In this case, Sanader was accused in 2012 of encouraging Mravak to pay a loan of 15 million kuna to Ježić’s company and to sell electricity below market price.
The trial was supposed to start back in the summer of 2014 when it was postponed due to the illness of both of Sanader’s co-defendants, and Mravak has since passed away.
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The fifth indictment against Sanader was first confirmed by the court back in September 2013. A nearly identical indictment had previously been in court, but the prosecution withdrew it and returned it a year later, supplemented with new expert opinions.
When he was questioned in that investigation in February 2012, Sanader dismissed suspicions that he had abused his position and authority as Prime Minister. Mravak, however, admitted the wrongdoing, while Ježić initially denied guilt before becoming a key witness for the prosecution in the Ina-MOL and Hypo cases, in which the former Prime Minister was definitively sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, but the Constitutional Court annulled the verdict.
