The verdict which the first-instance court announced in December 2005, was quashed on appeal lodged by the prosecution, and the Supreme Court has also ordered a retrial before a new panel of judges.
When clearing the defendant Josip Mraovic of charges, the first panel of judges presided by Judge Branko Milanovic explained that it could not equate pushing one's finger into the other person's anus with an act of sexual abuse. The notorious explanation of that verdict also read that otherwise every act of "reluctant hand-shake" could be equated with rape.
The prosecution appealed against the ruling, claiming that Judge Milanovic misinterpreted relevant laws and that the law regulating criminal proceedings was seriously breached by the panel of judges that wrongly established facts.
The Supreme Court upheld the appeal, saying that the Gospic court panel of judges completely ignored the fact that by such an offensive action the defendant intended to satisfy his sex drive and lust and use the basketball player for this purpose.
This is important for qualifying the act in concern as a sexual intercourse, the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court also said that the conduct of Mraovic contained all the elements of a criminal act of rape, but the other question is whether this criminal act was proved.
The Supreme Court also criticised the Gospic Court panel of judges for ignoring that important segments of statements by basketball player Illisha Jarrett were confirmed by two witnesses and for failing to analyse injures which both Jarret and Mraovic had according to doctors' documentation.