Croatia's former PM convicted of new graft charges

Croatia's ex-prime minister Ivo Sanader was found guilty yesterday of embezzling millions of euros in public funds while in power and sentenced to nine years in jail, his second graft conviction in two years.
The two-year-long trial, which also found the the former ruling HDZ party guilty of the same charges, was labelled here as the most important corruption case since the former Yugoslav republic's 1991 independence.
In 2012, Sanader was sentenced in another case to 10 years in prison for taking millions of euros in bribes from Hungarian energy giant MOL and a troubled Austrian bank.
The Supreme Court has yet to confirm the earlier ruling against the former powerful prime minister who remains in detention also charged in three other corruption affairs.
A Zagreb court yesterday convicted Sanader of masterminding a criminal group which diverted from state-run firms and institutions some 10 million euros ($13.8 million) mainly for himself and slush funds for HDZ, Judge Ivana Calic said.