Former Croatian PM gets 10 years for corruption

Former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has been given a ten-year prison sentence for corruption charges. He becomes the highest-ranking official in Croatia to be sentenced for graft.

The verdict for Sanader came on Tuesday in a courtroom in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. He was found guilty of accepting a 10 million euro ($12.8 million) bribe from Hungarian energy group MOL in 2008 and a 545,000 euro bribe from an Austrian bank in 1995. Sanader was prime minister of Croatia from 2004-2009. He resigned in the middle of his second term.

In return for the bribes, MOL was given controlling rights in the privatization of Croatia's state oil company, and the bank was given help in brokering a loan.

Sanader said he was not guilty and had maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated.

Croatia is scheduled to join the European Union in 2013. Efforts to crack down on corruption are being carefully monitored by EU observers in the run-up to Croatia's accession.

mz/kms (dpa, AP, Reuters)

Source: DW (20/11/2012): http://www.dw.de/former-croatian-pm-gets-10-years-for-corruption/a-16391354