Hungarian company chief summoned to Croatia

Croatia’s anti-graft authority USKOK has summoned Zsolt Hernádi, Chairman-CEO of Hungarian fuels group MOL, for a hearing on September 25 as a suspect in a bribery case that resulted in a ten-year prison sentence for Croatia’s former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

The financial website portfolio.hu quotes Croatian paper Jutarnji List that - citing unnamed sources – said Hernádi was summoned by USKOK for a hearing on September 25. Hernádi has recently told the Croatian newspaper Globus that if Hungarian and Croatian authorities agree that he must go to Zagreb, he will comply with their request.

The Hungarian government has so far been turning down such requests by Croatian authorities. Globus said the stonewalling of Croatia’s attempts to probe Hernádi has two reasons. Hungarian authorities claim they have no evidence whatsoever that bribery was involved in MOL obtaining control over Croatian refinery INA. The second issue is defending national interests.

Portfolio.hu adds that the ongoing MOL-INA bout has been propelled into focus again over the past few weeks, which is no wonder really considering that Croatia’s anti-graft authority USKOK had said on its website on July 11 that the country’s European Union accession on July 1 established conditions that would ensure MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernádi would be present at hearings related to a bribery case that landed Croatia’s former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader a ten-year prison sentence. It cited EU member states’ obligatory judicial assistance co-operation in criminal cases that was opened for Croatia when it joined the bloc.