Stefanija Balog, the financial manager of former President Stjepan Mesic's presidential campaign, on Wednesday dismissed the claim by political scientist Darko Petricic that Mesic's campaign had been financed by an Albanian lobby or mafia.
Balog said in her testimony before the Zagreb County Court that after consultations with a financial expert a special account had been opened for the 2000 presidential campaign into which only natural persons and legal entities resident in Croatia could pay their contributions and that, when making payments, they needed to provide their details.
When asked by the judge whether she knew if any Albanian had paid a large amount of money into that account, Balog said that sponsors were not classified by ethnic background and that she had not noticed any Albanian names.
"I don't know what the Albanian mafia is. I have no knowledge that an Albanian lobby financed the Mesic campaign," the witness said, dismissing such claims as ridiculous.
Balog and Mesic have been friends and business partners since 1976. Mesic served two consecutive terms as President, from 2000 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2010.
Balog dismissed claims that Mesic had been left with 20 million German marks after the campaign and that he was among the three or four richest people in Croatia.
When asked by Petricic, whom Mesic sued for defamation, whether the Lijanovic brothers from Bosnia and Herzegovina had lent Mesic any money, Balog said she did not know who had lent him money.
The witness could not remember who had financed the campaign, but said that Mesic's election team was the only one to have published a financial and audit report which was fully transparent. Balog submitted to the court the report on the 2005 campaign, saying that the first campaign of 2000 had cost about 3.5 million kuna. The judge gave her 10 days to produce the report on the 2000 campaign.
Balog also rejected claims that Mesic was a shareholder in companies that had financed his presidential campaign, and that his campaign had been financed by the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Mesic sued Petricic in late 2009 over his statements to the media that Mesic was "an exponent of the Albanian mafia" which had financed his election campaign and that he was one of the three richest people in Croatia.
The next hearing was set for January 10.
