
Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader can remain behind bars until the age of 80 based on the three final verdicts with which he has been sentenced in three different cases so far, if the court does not grant him early release.
Although it was speculated that the 69-year-old, despite the number of verdicts handed down against him for crimes committed during his tenure as prime minister, could not ultimately receive a combined sentence of more than 15 years in prison, such estimates, at least for now for now, they appear to be wrong.
Accordingly, Sanader asked the non-judicial body of the Zagreb District Court to combine all the charges against him, so that in the end, according to the legal provisions, he would receive a lower sentence.
So far, he has spent about seven and a half years behind bars, where under Croatian law, parole can be sought after serving half of the sentence.
Sanader's corruption scandals have been in focus for more than 12 years, and in mid-October 2021, the highest court partially confirmed the decision in the case of the media "Fimi".
At the end of October 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance verdict by which Sanader was sentenced to six years in prison for accepting bribes from the head of the Hungarian MOL, Zolt Hernadi. Sanader was acquitted in a retrial in October last year of war profiteering charges in the Hypo affair, for which he was convicted twice during previous trials.