Court Frees Former Croatian PM Sanader

Former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader left prison custody on Wednesday following a ruling by the Zagreb County Court that morning.

The county court decision came after Croatia's constitutional court terminated Sanader's custody on Tuesday, giving the county court until December 1 to pass a new decision. Sanader had been in prison since November 2012.

The Croatian Constitutional Court on September 30 ruled that were no legal grounds to keep Sanader behind bars after the Supreme Court acquitted him in the so-called "Fimi Media' case.

In relation to the Fimi Media case, the County Court in March 2014 jailed Sanader for nine years and fined him 2 million euro for using a private marketing company, Fimi Media, to pump money out of public companies and institutions.

After being acquitted due to violations of criminal procedures and breaches to the right to fair trial, the Supreme Court returned the case to the County Court for retrial, setting bail at 1.6 million euro, due to the risk of him escaping.

His legal team offered a various items of real estate for bail, which the Court refused to accept, claiming some of them were not legally listed or their value was dubious.

The Zagreb Court spokesperson, Kresimir Devcic, said on Wednesday that Sanader would be released as soon as the prison received the decision.

He noted that the Croatian Office for Suppressing Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, could appeal against the decision, but that the Sanader was free in the meantime.

Deputy head of USKOK Zeljka Mostecak confirmed that USKOK would in fact appeal the decision.

Sanader's lawyer, Jadranka Slokovic, said his passport had been returned to him and he was now free to travel without restrictions or limitations...