Prime Ministers of Croatia

The leader of a months-long sit-in protest by Croatian war veterans said it would continue during the upcoming parliamentary election campaign to put pressure on candidates to support them.

Croatia's centre-left government on Thursday offered official support to Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic in her bid to become the new UN Secretary General.

Her candidacy was unofficially raised in February and her chances appeared high, as it is thought that the next UN Secretary will come from Eastern or Southeastern Europe.

Zagreb County Court on Wednesday indefinitely extended custody of former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

His lawyers had filed a plea for him to be released from custody lasting almost four years.

Sanader has received a nine-year jail sentence in a first instance ruling for using private marketing companies to siphon off public funds from state institutions and bodies.

Zagreb county court has scheduled the start of Sanader's retrial for September 7 on charges of abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

Sanader's eight-and-a-half-year sentence was revoked by the constitutional court on Monday due to procedural errors.

The constitutional court's decision this week to revoke the conviction of Sanader for bribery and illegal profiteering and order a retrial will not damage the electoral chances of his party, the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, at polls due late this year or in early 2016, analysts told BIRN.

Croatia's constitutional court on Monday revoked the verdicts that sentenced former ex-premier Sanader to eight and a half years in prison for abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

The verdicts were overturned because of procedural errors, the court said, and the legal process against Sanader will now restart at Zagreb county court.

Leader of Croatia's HDZ party says his country's allies gave up on participating in the Operation Storm parade on August 4 "due to pressure from Serbia."

President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic's office on Monday clearly distanced itself from Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic's bid to become UN secretary general.

The President's office told BIRN that Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic had other priorities, saying that "there are major issues in Croatia, such as the economy and negative demographic trends, which must constantly be stressed.

The Bureau for Combating Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, filed its latest indictment against Bozidar Kalmeta, the mayor of the Croatian coastal town of Zadar, on Friday.

This follows the anti-fraud body's indictments of Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic and former Sisak-Moslavina county prefect Marina Lovric Merzel on Wednesday.

Croatia's main opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, on Wednesday accused the government of selling the insurance company Croatia Osiguranje for a low price.