Croatia's Constitutional Court will deal with the constitutional complaint filed by Zsolt Hernadi, the CEO of Hungary's MOL energy group, in the autumn, Constitutional Court President Miroslav Separovic said on Tuesday. Pročitaj više

“The Constitutional Court has not yet addressed Hernadi’s constitutional complaint and will not do so before the autumn because it does not sit in the summer. The Hernadi case will be dealt with in the autumn,” Separovic told the Croatian state news agency Hina.

Hernadi filed the constitutional complaint against the Zagreb County Court ruling which sentenced him in his absence to two years in prison for bribing former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader.

The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court last October.

Sanader and Hernadi were found to have arranged amendments to the shareholders’ agreement on the Croatian oil and gas company INA, in which the Croatian government has a stake. The amendments were to give MOL a controlling interest in INA.

They also agreed the divestment of INA’s loss-making gas business, which was to be fully taken over by the Croatian government.

The Supreme Court found that Sanader, using his position of authority, ensured that the government agreed to MOL’s demands, while Hernadi paid €10 million to Sanader in return.

The Croatian political weekly Nacional, citing sources close to the Constitutional Court, has said that the court has unanimously rejected Hernadi’s constitutional complaint, which means that there are no legal grounds any more for him to try to avoid serving his prison term.