Popovič was tried for abuse of office in the sale of several plots of land owned by the municipality on the hill of Srmin in 2007 in what the prosecution labelled a deal agreed in advance whereby the municipality's budget lost EUR 4.7m.

The court held the municipality had rigged the terms of a public tender in favour of the company Serming, with Popovič enabling it by signing a relevant contract with the company.

In handing down the sentence, the panel of judges at the Koper District Court did not meet fully the prosecution's demand to sentence Popovič to four years in prison and a three-year ban on holding public office.

But the court has also found both of his co-defendants guilty of complicity.

The head of the Koper municipal administration Sabina Mozetič has got one year in prison and a two-year ban on holding public office for having ordered how to write the public tender.

Mozetič is the municipality's representative on the supervisory board of port operator Luka Koper.

Appraiser Rajko Srednik got a one-year prison sentence for setting a lower value for the land. He will also be unable to perform his job for two years.

Meanwhile, company Serming was ordered to pay EUR 4.7m - the sum the local budget lost as a result of the contentious deal.

It was also banned to use the land on Srmin for six months.

The rulings will become executable if the defendants do not appeal against them.

However, Popovič, who has been at the helm of the city of Koper since 2002, has already announced he would appeal.

"This is a political ruling," Popovič told reporters as he came out of the courtroom.

If the Higher Court fails to decide on the appeal by September, Popovič will most likely stand in the local elections, although he is not yet sure whether he would stand for mayor in Koper or the nearby municipality of Piran.

But if the ruling becomes final, Popovič will have to leave office.

Under Slovenian law, a mayor's office terminates if he is sentenced to a prison sentence longer than six months.

Popovič has been earlier sentenced to several suspended prison sentences.

In 2009 he got a three-month suspended sentence for defaming a reporter; in 2010 he was found guilty of abuse of office, tax evasion and doctoring business documents and got a suspended sentence of a year and ten months; in 2012 he got a two-months suspended sentence for defamation.