Patria

The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR ruled on Tuesday that Stjepan Mesic's right to respect for his private life was not violated by the Croatian courts, which the former president argued had failed to protect his reputation.

Brdo pri Kranju – Slovenia will rescind the EUR 281 million agreement on the purchase of 45 Boxer armoured personnel carriers from the OCCAR programme after an audit of the deal was completed, Defence Minister Marjan Šarec announced after Thursday’s cabinet session. The contractual fine could reach as high as EUR 70 million.

Ljubljana – The Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal by former PM Janez Janša against the statute barring of the Patria defence deal bribery case. While Janša felt denied a chance to prove his innocence, the top court claims he had no legal interest, as statute barring is fully equivalent to an acquittal, meaning he is considered innocent.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Defense announced that, on August 5, it had sent formal Requests for Proposals (RFP) to four companies invited to bid to supply armored infantry carriers. These four companies are ARTEC GmbH (Germany), Patria (Finland), Nexter Systems (France) and General Dynamics European Land Systems - MOWAG (Switzerland).

Slovakia's defense ministry said on Friday it was in talks to buy either American F-16s or Swedish Gripen fighter jets to replace its aging Russian-made MiG-29s, according to Reuters. 

The ministry said it would submit an analysis of the two options by June 29 for government approval.

On February 14th, representatives of the Finnish company Patria, met with the MPs from the parliamentary defense committee at the National Assembly. Patria intends to take part in the modernization of the Bulgarian Army by participating in the procedure for the acquisition of new armored vehicles for the Land Forces.

Finland's Patria said on Wednesday it is offering to Bulgaria the options of technology transfer and local production in case the Balkan country chooses to acquire armoured modular vehicles (AMVs) from the company.

The company offers a scheme for industrial participation and local production that will leave more than 50% of the investment in Bulgaria, Patria said in a statement.

A court in Hameenlinna, Finland, on Monday fined and paroled two officials of the Finnish state-owned arms company Patria for bribing Croatian officials during a sale of armed vehicles in 2007.

Heikki Hulkkonen and Patria's former representative in Croatia, Reijo Niittynen, were given 20 months parole and a 297,000 euro fine each for offering a bribe of 1.6 million euro.