Croatia's former prime minister Ivo Sanader has dismissed in the strongest terms allegations that he took bribes from an executive of the Hungarian oil company MOL, describing them as lies with which he has nothing to do, one of Sanader's Zagreb lawyers, Cedo Prodanovic, told reporters on Tuesday.
"We spoke on the telephone with our client who resolutely dismissed the (latest) allegations of bribe-taking. This is obviously yet another in a series of cases when individuals are buying their freedom and privileges in criminal proceedings at Sanader's expense," Prodanovic said.
The lawyer said that he was referring to the owner of the Dioki petrochemicals company, Robert Jezic, who is mentioned by the media as a co-owner of a Swiss company through which Sanader was allegedly paid 10 million euros in bribes in exchange for ceding management rights in INA to MOL.
Prodanovic said it was interesting that the anti-corruption agency USKOK, which is investigating the latest allegations, was not investigating Jezic, too.
Sanader's other lawyer Goran Suic said that Sanader had received USKOK's latest investigation order and that he hoped that the defence team would receive it today as well.
The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, confirmed earlier in the day that it had launched a new investigation into Sanader on suspicion that together with two other suspects he abused his office and powers, and that he took bribes. USKOK did not reveal the identities of the two people with whom the former PM allegedly committed the said crimes, but former Deputy PM Damir Polancec confirmed to the press that he received USKOK's investigation order through his lawyer a few days ago.
Polancec is reportedly not suspected of bribe-taking, but of aiding and abetting abuse of powers.
The media speculate that USKOK suspects the chairman of MOL's Management Board, Zsolt Hernadi, of bribe-giving.
MOL said today there had been no payments or payment agreements with any actor or decision-maker on the Croatian political scene, either directly or indirectly, either before or after the shareholders' agreement on the Croatian oil company INA.
Strongly dismissing all such allegations and accusations, the company said it would take strict legal measures against anyone spreading them.
Jezic, who also owns the Rijeka-based daily Novi List, has been under investigation since December 2010 on suspicion that he reached agreement with Sanader, former HEP power supply company CEO Ivan Mravak, and former HEP executive Ivan Mrljak on the sale of electricity to Dioki at prices below the market prices, whereby HEP was allegedly defrauded of HRK 6.3 million.
Jezic is also under investigation because of a loan which Dioki received from HEP and which it later paid back, and because he is suspected of having bribed Sanader by giving him with a bullet-proof BMW.
In March this year, the investigation into him was expanded on the suspicion that he incited Sanader to attempted abuse of office. In that case, the JANAF oil pipeline operator was to have bought Dioki's oil storage facility in Zagreb, whereby JANAF would have been defrauded of EUR 10 million.
Jezic spent four and a half months in custody and was released on April 21.
