Breaking news! Croatia top court affirms prison sentence for MOL chief Hernádi – UPDATE

Croatia’s supreme court on Monday affirmed a Zagreb court’s prison sentence for Zsolt Hernádi, the chairman-CEO of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, and former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, the local press reported.

In December 2019, the Zagreb County Court sentenced Hernadi to two years in prison for graft. He was charged in absentia with bribing Sanader a decade earlier to give MOL management rights in Croatian peer INA.

Sanader was handed a six-year prison sentence.

In its Monday ruling, the supreme court dismissed the appeals filed by Hernadi and Sanader’s defence teams as well as the appeal by the prosecution for harsher sentences, the daily Jutarnji List said.

In its justification, the court said

Sanader had agreed with Hernádi that MOL would be given management rights in INA for a bribe of 10 million euros.

MOL and Hernádi have steadfastly denied the charges, insisting that the company had never bribed any politician.

Hernadi was earlier acquitted of the charge by the Hungarian judiciary.

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UPDATE

In a statement issued on Monday, MOL voiced disappointment with the court’s decision. The company noted that Hungarian authorities as well as an international arbitration court earlier established that neither MOL nor its executives had committed any crime.

Because of “serious injustices” experienced in the course of Croatian procedures, Hernádi will appeal to Croatia’s Constitutional Court, MOL said.

Source: MTI