Djapic was charged by the Municipal Court in the southern Adriatic city of Split with incitement to abuse office, while Kandare was accused of abuse of office and authority.
Although it has been proved that Djapic copied most of his master's thesis from the works of Kandare, who at the time was a senior member of the HSP, "the matter should have been dealt with by the Faculty Council of the Split Law School which awarded him the title of Master of Law," Split Municipal Court Judge Robert Pesutic said when announcing the judgement.
The judge said it was not clear from the statement of fact in the indictment how Djapic had incited his thesis adviser to abuse his office and authority, and that the copyright was not violated because the thesis adviser had said during the investigation that no damage had been inflicted upon him.
"The judgement should be a warning to anyone using the judiciary for settling political accounts," Djapic told reporters after the court session. He accused the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of "staging a political trial" on the basis of a report by Dobroslav Paraga, leader of a rival Rights party.