The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg ruled that Hungary should not have ignored extradition request for Zsolt Hernadi, Chairman and CEO of the Hungarian company MOL, to Croatia, N1 learned on Wednesday from the Zagreb County Court.

N1 also learned that Hungary’s refusal to extradite Hernadi to Croatia might cause conflict with the European Union.

The decision by the Hungary’s State Attorney’s Office to suspend the criminal investigation as part of which the wanted person, identified only under initials AY (although it is clear the person in question is Zsolt Hernadi), was questioned only as a witness, cannot be grounds to reject the European arrest warrant, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg said.

The Court said that, after an investigation against Hernadi was opened in Croatia for the crime of bribery, the Croatian authorities have on several occasions (for the first time on June 10, 2011) requested legal assistance from their Hungarian colleagues in the form of questioning of the wanted person as a suspect. Hungary opened an investigation into whether a criminal offence had been committed, but has only interviewed Hernadi as a witness in the case.

After joining the European Union in 2013, Croatia issued a European arrest warrant against Hernadi, but the Hungarian authorities rejected the warrant, saying that the criminal proceedings over the same acts that the warrant was based on had already been concluded in Hungary.

The Zagreb County Court had issued a new European arrest warrant in December 2015, which Hungary rejected, saying it was impossible to arrest Hernadi in Hungary or initiate a new procedure for the execution of the warrant.

Hernadi is suspected of having agreed to pay €10 million to the then Prime Minister of Croatia Ivo Sanader in 2009, in return for the conclusion of an agreement between the Hungarian MOL Group and the Croatian government, in which MOL was granted management rights of the Croatian Ina oil company.

Sanader is still under investigation by the Croatian anti-corruption office Uskok for abuse of power and accepting bribes from Hernadi. Both he and the Hungarian company have denied the allegations of bribery.

Judge Ivan Turudic, who was presiding over the case against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abuse of power and taking bribes from MOL, commented on the CJEU ruling for N1.

“The Court decisions are binding for all EU members, including Hungary. (If they refuse to comply), they will enter into conflict with EU,” Turudic said.

MOL became Ina’s strategic partner in 2003, after purchasing 25 percent plus one share. Over time Ina’s ownership structure has changed and now the state owns less than 50 percent shares, while MOL now has nearly 50 percent ownership of Ina.

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