ZAGREB: Croatia dramatically stepped up its fight against corruption on Friday, issuing an international arrest warrant for a former prime minister, the day after he slipped out of the country.
The move is widely seen as a significant step for the country’s bid the join the European Union, as the anti-graft fight is among key criteria Zagreb has to meet to join the 27-nation bloc.
Ivo Sanader, who led the government from 2003 until 2009, is wanted by organised crime and corruption investigators for “associating to commit a criminal act and abuse of power,” the warrant published on the interior ministry’s website said. Sanader, 57, crossed into neighbouring Slovenia on Thursday, just hours before parliament stripped him of immunity at the prosecutors’ request, paving the way for his detention.
A Zagreb court judge had ordered a one-month detention for Sanader since “he is on the run and due to the danger of influencing witnesses.”
It was not immediately clear where Sanader was headed, but a ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputy said the former premier planned to return to Croatia later on Friday.
“He told me (over the phone) that he is returning. He will cease a meeting due to which he left … and later in the afternoon or in the early evening hours at the latest he will be in Croatia,” Jerko Rosin told national television. He said he did not ask Sanader where he was at the moment. The information on Sanader’s possible return was confirmed by a lawyer, whom he had contacted earlier.
“I talked to him and my impression was that he would cease his activities and promptly return to Croatia,” Mate Matic told AFP.
Meanwhile, police were searching Sanader’s house in downtown Zagreb on Friday. Sanader, Croatia’s first prime minister to be probed for corruption, was a dominant figure in the former Yugoslav republic’s political scene for years.
Taking the HDZ helm in 2000 he steered the party away from the nationalist bent it had under late autocratic president Franjo Tudjman and put it among Europe’s mainstream conservatives. In January, Sanader was expelled from the HDZ after criticising his successor Jadranka Kosor, but returned to frontline politics in October.
Croatian media have repeatedly linked him with corruption. A close Sanader associate was detained recently as part of a corruption inquiry, on suspicion of having instructed public companies to make business deals worth millions of euros with a local promotion firm. Local media reported the money from the deals for fictitious services ended up in the pockets of private individuals and in party coffers.
Several senior political and civil service figures have been already investigated — and some convicted — for corruption. However, the probe against Sanader was seen here as a crucial move to show’s the country’s decisiveness to battle corruption. Globally it is “nothing new or sensational,” commented Damir Grubisa, a political analyst.
“It is a small step for democracy but a giant and decisive leap for Croatia. For the first time such a high official will be most likely charged,” he said.
