Petrac was sentenced on Monday at the retrial. During the first trial, Petrac and other five indictees in the case were tried in absence. The Zagreb County Court sentenced Hrvoje Petrac to six years in prison for masterminding the abduction. Given that at the time he was on the run and the sentence was handed down in his absence, under Croatian laws he was able to appeal to the Supreme Court for a retrial.
The controversial businessman was arrested in Greece in August last year and put in prison in Igoumenica. On July 27 this year, Greek Justice Minister Anastasis Papaligouras signed a decision granting Croatia's request for extradition. Hrvoje Petrac was then transferred back to Croatia.
The then 17-year-old Tomislav Zagorec was kidnapped in front of his family home in Zagreb on 23 February 2004 and was released four days later after his father paid 750,000 euros, half the ransom demanded.
The Zagreb County Court today also sentenced the other five indictees in the case and gave them the same sentences as the last time.
After the court handed down the verdict, only Petrac said he did not understand the ruling.
"All of this is just a farce, nothing has been proven. This is a disaster," Petrac said.
The first indictee, Ivan Matekovic, was sentenced to seven years in jail. He pleaded guilty to the kidnapping of Zagorec's son and organising a criminal group with an aim to kidnap the children of wealthy Croatian families.
A member of Matekovic's criminal group, Marinko Gosuljevic was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, while Sinisa Jezovita and Stevo Smrcek were sentenced to three years and three months. Libero Matekovic was sentenced to one year and he is to be released from custody. Petrac and Matekovic will remain in custody. The Croatian law regulates that all convicts sentenced to five or more years in jail should remain in custody until the verdict becomes final.
Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge Ivan Turudic said today that during the court proceedings it was established that all the six indictees were involved in the abduction, and that neither the panel of judges nor he could believe what the indictees said presenting their defence.
"The court is convinced that you committed the crime just as it is described in the indictment," Turudic said, adding that a majority of the indictees, including the convict Novica Petrac, Hrvoje Petrac's son who already received a final ruling for his involvement, tried to justify the crime with what Turudic labelled as bizarre reasons.
Addressing Hrvoje Petrac, the presiding judge said that the abduction could not have been carried out without him.
"Nobody would have come up with the idea to do it without you," Turudic said.
"There were no two commanding lines," the presiding judge said dismissing claims by Petrac's son and Ivan Matekovic that they had planned to kidnap Zagorec's son, without involving Hrvoje Petrac in that.
"There was only one commanding line and it came from you," the presiding judge told Hrvoje Petrac, adding that "the only mystery" was what the real motives were for this crime.
Lawyers for Petrac and Matekovic announced appeals against the ruling, while the Croatian Office for Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK) expressed satisfaction with today's ruling. USKOK representatives added that they would consider a possibility to appeal the duration of sentences after they received the ruling in writing.