Late last month, the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court issued a detention order against Kutle following his failure to attend a hearing in the Gradski Podrum fraud case, after which the Croatian police issued a warrant for his arrest.

Kutle's lawyers submitted medical documentation from the southern Bosnian city of Mostar to account for their client's absence, but a court expert, who studied the documentation, concluded that he was fit to attend court proceedings so the judge in charge of the case asked a panel of judges for an opinion. On October 25, the court panel ordered detention against him, after which a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Kutle has been accused of malfeasance in the privatisation of several companies in the 1990s. He has been sentenced to two years and eight months for wrongdoing in the Gradski Podrum company.

The Gradski Podrum case was divided into two cases, of which one is still under way. In the other case, he was sentenced to prison because his Globus Group acquired shares of Gradski Podrum on the basis of fictitious documentation on nonexistent claims, which constituted misuse of the 1990s privatisation model.

The verdict in that case, which was upheld by the Zagreb County Court in September this year, should have become enforceable by last week because, even though Kutle had not been served with it, it was made public on the notice board of the Zagreb Municipal Court where the trial was conducted.