Energy group chair charged with bribing former PM

  ZAGREB (AP):

Croatia's anti-graft authorities have charged the chairman of Hungary's MOL energy group, with bribing a former Croatian prime minister.

Croatia's state prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Corruption said yesterday that Zsolt Hernadi agreed to give €10 million to Ivo Sanader in 2008 and 2009, while he was prime minister, to gain control of Croatia's oil and gas firm INA.

Hernadi has denied the allegation and Hungary has in the past rejected a Croatian arrest warrant for the MOL chairman.

Sanader has been serving a 10-year prison sentence since being found guilty in 2012 of accepting a bribe from MOL.

Croatia has sought to combat graft since the Balkan country last year joined the European Union.