Croatia jails ex-PM Ivo Sanader for taking bribes Ivo Sanader served as Croatian prime minister from 2004 to 2009. He is the country's highest-ranking former official to have been tried for graft. The former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking bribes from two foreign companies, making him the highest state official to be convicted of corruption in the future EU member state. Croatia will join the EU in July and Sanader's conviction is likely to be seen as evidence of the country cracking down on corruption. Its efforts to fight crime are being monitored before it formally joins the bloc. A Zagreb county court found the 59-year-old guilty of agreeing in 2008 to accept a €5m (£4m) payment from Hungary's MOL energy group in exchange for granting it full management rights over Croatia's oil concern, INA. The ruling, against which Sanader is likely to appeal, sent MOL shares down amid concerns it might prompt Croatia to review the group's shareholder agreement with INA. Judge Ivan Turudic said Sanader had taken a fee from Austria's Hypo Alpe Adria bank in 1995, when he was deputy foreign minister, which prosecutors described as "war profiteering." Croatia's war of independence from Serbian-led Yugoslavia was winding down at the time. Sanader, who looked drawn and pensive in court, denied wrongdoing and dismissed the trial as politically motivated. He will be detained until the appeal.