PHOTO: Croatian Businessman Gets 3 Yrs for Rape

Joso Mraovic was sentenced to three years in prison for the rape of American basketball player Ilisha Jarett.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – A businessman from Gospic, Joso Mraovic, has been sentenced to three years in prison for the rape of American basketball player Ilisha Jarett in April 2005.

Mraovic was charged with raping Jarett in his hotel by inserting a finger in her anus. At the trial in Gospic, Mraovic was acquitted, as judge Branko Milanovic likened Mraovic’s assault to a handshake.

The Supreme Court overturned the verdict and allocated the case to the Rijeka County Court which passed the sentence of three years in prison this morning.

After he exited the court building, Mraovic told reporters the verdict had been reached under pressure by the media and politicians and asked how the judge was not ashamed of her verdict, Croatia’s news agency Hina reported. Mraovic threw insults at Ilisha Jarett and said she had fabricated the entire story because she wanted to leave Gospic and the local basketball team.

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‘Considering the public’s disposition, Mraovic could have gotten five years in prison’ 

Mraovic’s attorney Zvonimir Hodak had this to say about his client’s sentence:

- The court went for the most rigorous sentence from the start. My client was lucky, considering the disposition of the court and public – Hodak said. He added Mraovic could have received a five-year jail term, looking at the way the court handled the case.

Hodak voiced his dissatisfaction with the way the case was handled, especially because half of the evidence requested by the Supreme Court had not been accepted. The prosecution had refused to accept the finding of a gynaecologist that did not support the charges against Mraovic, as well as the findings by a DNA expert who found no evidence under Mraovic’s fingernails.

This is an unusual punishment, Hodak said, stressing he was confident of his client’s innocence.