Habijan: If Hernadi finds himself on the territory of another EU country, he should be arrested!

The director of MOL in Croatia was legally sentenced in absentia to two years in prison due to accusations that he gave bribes to the former Prime Minister and HDZ president Ivo Sanader for the contracts concluded in 2009 between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and MOL by which the Hungarian company gained control over the Croatian oil company INA.

Earlier on Thursday, MOL announced that the court in Budapest closed the decision-making process on the recognition of a foreign court verdict with its final verdict of March 18, and in its justification, pointed out the alleged violations of the law which they claim seriously violated Hernadi’s fundamental human rights.

“It is an internal procedure of Hungary and it refers to the recognition of the legal consequences of the verdict itself, i.e. the consequences of conviction but also of rehabilitation,” said Habijan.

He added that this decision has no effect on the final judgment passed in Croatia or on the valid European arrest warrant, stressing that he expects all EU member states to act on that warrant.

Habijan states that, if Hernadi is found on the territory of another EU member state, he should be arrested, and any failure to comply with the order would not be acceptable.

He also assessed that he sees the Hungarian court’s decision as an attempt to devalue the procedure that has lasted for years in Croatia. When asked what would happen if Hernadi did not appear in Croatia, the minister expressed the expectation that all EU member states would respect the European arrest warrant.

“Regardless of this decision, the European arrest warrant is in effect,” Habijan concluded, adding that Hernadi should be arrested if he is found in any other member state of the European Union.

In the case known as INA-MOL, at the end of October 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance verdict by which Sanader was sentenced to six years for accepting a bribe from Hernadi, while the unavailable Hernadi was sentenced to two years.

Due to a series of corruption verdicts, Sanader was ultimately sentenced to a single sentence of 18 years in prison, and this summer he was released on parole after serving two-thirds of the sentence.