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Croatia's Former PM Flees Country

   VOA News 09 December 2010
   Former  Croatian  prime  minster  Ivo  Sanader  talks  during  a  news
   conference  at  the government building in Zagreb, Croatia, 1 Jul 2009
   (file photo)

Photo: AP

   Former  Croatian  Prime  Minster  Ivo  Sanader  talks  during  a  news
   conference  at  the government building in Zagreb, Croatia, 1 Jul 2009
   (file photo)

   Croatian  police  say  former  Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has fled the
   country,   hours   after  officials  probing  government  graft  asked
   parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution.
   A  police  spokesman in the capital, Zagreb, said Sanader crossed into
   neighboring  Slovenia Thursday morning. He said police at the time had
   no basis for stopping him.
   It  was  not  immediately  clear  what  charges  against him are under
   consideration, or if an arrest warrant had been issued.
   Sanader  abruptly resigned as prime minister in July 2009 and withdrew
   from  politics.  In  October  he  appeared  before  a government panel
   investigating the 2009 sale of Croatia's state-run oil company.
   The  committee  wants  to  know  details  of  why the INA oil firm was
   privatized and why a Hungarian firm gained effective control of one of
   Croatia's largest companies.
   Sanader testified at the hearing that most leaders of Croatia's ruling
   conservative  party  (HDZ)  including  current Prime Minister Jadranka
   Kosor, were aware of the deal.
   An  anti-corruption  advocate and one of two deputy prime ministers at
   the time of the sale, Kosor has said she was not involved.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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