A court in Finland has found two executives of majority state-owned arms company Patria guilty of paying bribes to Croatian officials, in the latest twist of a corruption scandal which links the pockets of Patria managers and prominent figures in the ex-Yugoslavia.
According to media reports on Monday, Heikki Hulkkonen, former vice president of Patria Vehicles, and Reijo Niittynen, the company's representative in Croatia, were both sentenced on Monday to 20 months conditional discharge while Patria was ordered to pay €297,000 costs, after the pair were found guilty of bribery.
The court heard that the executives gave bribes worth €1.6 million to Croatian officials in the course of negotiating a deal in 2007 worth €112 million to supply the Croatian military with AMV armoured vehicles According to Croatian media, then President of Croatia Stjepan Mesic and former Croatian Prime Minister Franjo Greguric are two of those accused of receiving bribes from Patria managers, a claim the retired politicians deny.
In June 2013 ex-Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa was convicted in Slovenia of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison for soliciting bribes from Patria, in order to help it win a supply contract in 2006.
