Analysis

Former Croatian PM sentenced to prison for corruption

Former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader has been jailed for a previous corruption conviction after the country’s supreme court increased his original sentence above the level that requires him to go to prison. He surrendered himself to police late on April 4.

In 2017, a lower court sentenced Mr Sanader to four-and-a-half years in prison for taking a bribe in 2008 linked to the sale of a building owned by a party colleague to a ministry at a price far higher than its market value. However, the sentence was below the five-year threshold that required him to go to prison.

The length of the new sentence has yet to be made public, but the Croatian press have reported that Mr Sanader has been handed a six-year term in jail. The former prime minister, in office from 2003-2009, is also currently on trial for two other corruption offences.