Croat doctor jailed for graft flees to Bosnia

A Croatian surgeon sentenced to nine years in prison in a landmark graft trial has gone into hiding and local media said he had fled to neighbouring Bosnia to avoid jail.

A court in Rijeka, on Croatia's northern Adriatic coast, found doctor Ognjen Simic guilty yesterday for taking 210,000 kuna ($43,570) in bribes between 1998 and 2006 from 18 patients who needed urgent heart surgery.

Simic did not attend the reading of the sentence -- the most severe for corruption since Croatia became independent in 1991 -- and his lawyer said he had phoned to say he was ill.

The verdict came as Croatia seeks to prove it has stepped up efforts to counter graft, a major hurdle in the country's bid for membership of the European Union.

State radio said the police could not find Simic at his address after the trial and issued an arrest warrant.

"We have learned unofficially that Simic has fled to Bosnia," the radio said today.

A lawyer in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo told Vecernji List daily that Simic was in Sarajevo yesterday and had contacted him to seek legal representation.

Simic comes from Bosnian and, like many Bosnian Croats, has Croatian and Bosnian passports. The Bosnian constitution does not allow extradition of its citizens for trials abroad.

The daily Jutarnji List said Simic had gone to his father's house in Sarajevo.

Croatia hopes to join the EU in around 2011 if it shows a good track record in implementing reforms in the judiciary, economy and administration and continuous efforts to root out widespread corruption.