14 Feb 2011

Today Croatia Fried a Big Fish: Bereslav Roncevic, Former Defense Minister

Just over a year after being endighted, former Croatian Minister of Defense in the Ivo Sanader Cabinet – Mr Berislav Roncevic – was sentenced today to four years in prison, along with another former high rank official. You can read more facts related to this story here.

Why is this relevant? Well, to start: the more convictions, the better. The speculations of the Croatian press that Mr Roncevic is only an actor in the Croatian corruption business are absolutely irrelevant. What matters here is that it was possible to prosecute Mr Roncevic and it was done. Moreover, the Croatian state expects to recover the almost 1,4 billion Euro that had been stolen among the two. The thought alone of recovering an amount of money or asset that was in public property and misused by public officials seems to bring something new to the picture of anti-corruption prosecution in Eastern Europe. Needless to say we are still waiting for the much craved in Brussels convictions for corruption of high rank Romanian and Bulgarian officials.

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