Former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader, wanted in connection with an anti-corruption investigation, was arrested on a highway in Austria today, Vienna's federal crime office said.
Mr Sanader left Croatia yesterday shortly before parliament lifted his immunity from prosecution. Prosecutors suspect him of being behind a plan to create slush funds for his conservative HDZ party during his 2004-09 tenure in power.
Mr Sanader denies the accusations, saying they were politically motivated. He is the highest-ranking Croatian official investigated for corruption.
Mr Sanader was taken into custody in the western Salzburg province, federal crime office spokesman Alexander Marakovits said. "He will go to the Salzburg provincial court and then the authorities will have to decide what will happen with him in the next days or the next weeks," he said.
A Croatian police spokesman, Krunoslav Borovec, said: "We now expect to receive relevant documentation to be able to start the procedure for extradition."
Analysts believe the move against Mr Sanader could help Zagreb's European Union membership bid. Croatia hopes to conclude EU entry talks next year, but before that it has to convince Brussels of its determination to stamp out corruption.
"This is certainly good news for our EU talks, but perhaps more important, for the future of our democracy, for the issue of transparency and party financing, which was very low so far," said political analyst Davor Gjenero.
The extradition could take several months, particularly if Mr Sanader says he is a victim of political persecution at home, Croatian media reported.
Mr Sanader was arrested "without incident," the Austria Press Agency reported. It said he had been in the car with his brother, whom police did not detain.
Croatian lawyer Mato Matic said Mr Sanader - who graduated from university in the Austrian city of Innsbruck and once ran a business there - had contacted him by text message to deny speculation that he had fled Zagreb.
"He told me to inform the institutions that he had not fled and would be back in three or four days," Mr Matic told state television.
At the state prosecutor's request, Croatia's parliament unanimously lifted Sanader's immunity from prosecution yesterday - shortly after he left the country.
Mr Marakovits said Austria acted after receiving an international arrest warrant for Mr Sanader. "Our police tried to find him and we located him on the highway this afternoon."
He was stopped near the alpine village of St Michael, around 300km east of Vienna.
Mr Sanader resigned unexpectedly and with no explanation in July 2009. His ruling HDZ party expelled him in January.
In September, police arrested the chief of the national customs service, Mladen Barisic, a close friend of Mr Sanader and party treasurer for the HDZ.
Croatian media said he had implicated Mr Sanader in his testimony, as had the former general manager of state power board HEP, also arrested and interrogated in an anti-graft sweep launched after Mr Sanader's former deputy Jadranka Kosor took over the government.
In late November, police seized the head of the national environment protection bureau and accused him of being part of a scam to create slush funds for the HDZ in Sanader's era.
Yesterday, police arrested a local oil tycoon suspected of having been allowed to buy electricity from HEP at deeply discounted prices thanks to his close links to Mr Sanader.
Reuters