Ex-Croatian PM to serve jail term for bribery

BELGRADE, Serbia

Croatia's former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Monday was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for bribery and unjustified profits in the 90s wars.

A court in Croatian capital Zagreb found Sanader guilty of making unjustified profits from a deal with Austria’s Hypo Bank.

The court asked him to return €480,000 ($570,000) he received in kickbacks from the deal.

Sanader, who was deputy foreign minister at the time, benefited from war profiteering by acting for his own benefit rather than Croatia’s, the court ruled.

In 2012, Sanader was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in the same case but in 2014 the Constitutional Court annulled that decision and ordered Sanader's retrial.

Sanader, who was on trial for six separate cases, was sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud in 2012, and was released after spending four years in prison.

He was also sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for bribery and corruption in another case last year.

Sanader went on to serve as prime minister from 2003 to 2009.