Prime Ministers of Croatia

PM Zoran Milanovic and President Ivo Josipovic were heckled by war veterans at a ceremony to mark the 19th anniversary of the Croatian Army’s victorious Operation Storm against Serb forces.

The court in Zagreb on Friday confirmed that Sanader would go to jail but reduced the sentence from ten years to eight and a half.

Sanader, who was the country's premier from 2003 to 2009, was convicted of taking bribes from Hungarian oil group MOL in exchange for allowing it to take a dominant position in Croatian oil firm INA.

“The indictment against Hernadi has been confirmed and he will be tried in absentia,” Zagreb county court spokesperson Kresimir Devcic told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

The alleged graft took place in 2008-9, when the Croatian government put its shares of the state oil company INA on the market. MOL bought 22.15 per cent of INA’s shares, thus becoming the biggest stakeholder.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is going on a one-day official visit to Croatia, Tuesday.

HDZ verdict is a turning point for political transparency

HDZ is the first political party in the EU to be found guilty of corruption.

Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader (centre) was sentenced to nine years in prison in the Fimi Media case. [AFP]