The Zagreb County Court on Wednesday found all four defendants guilty of abduction of a former Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ante Jelavic, in April 2009, and handed them prison sentences ranging from three to four years.
Vlado Curic and Mario Milicevic -- who organised the abduction -- were sentenced to three and a half and four years in prison respectively.
Dalibor Prgomet and Milicevic's son Vlatko, who was tried in absentia, received three years each.
On Monday, Vlado Curic and Mario Milicevic admitted to complicity in the abduction. The accused Dalibor Prgomet denied his guilt. The fourth defendant, Vlatko Milicevic, is on the run and is being tried in absentia, while Sasa Savinovic will be tried in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The first and the second defendant received milder sentences because they had confessed to the kidnapping.
The ruling can be appealed.
Jelavic was kidnapped in Zagreb on April 8, 2009 and taken by car to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He had been a member of the Bosnian collective presidency until 2001 when he was removed from office by the international community's High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch. After he was sentenced to prison for embezzlement in mid-2005, he escaped to Croatia, having dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship. In July 2006, following his appeal, the trial court verdict was quashed and a retrial was ordered.
