Croatia slaps ex-premier with 8-year graft sentence

BELGRADE, Serbia

Croatia's former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison on abuse of office and corruption charges.

After the Supreme Court annulled an initial 2013 ruling, the final decision was announced in the "Fimi Media" case, which was reopened in 2016 in what has been described as one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history.

Meanwhile, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which Sanader chaired during his time in office, received a fine amounting to about €2.3 million ($2.7 million) by the court in the capital Zagreb.

HDZ spokesman Ratko Macek was acquitted.

Sanader, who served as prime minister between 2003 and 2009, was previously convicted of bribery, abuse of office, acquiring unfair gain, and corruption in different cases.

In the first decision overturned in the case, Sanader had been sentenced to nine years in prison, and HDZ fined more than €3 million.