On Monday, the Zagreb County Court confirmed the indictment the USKOK anti-corruption agency issued against Sanader accusing him of graft for enabling MOL to have management rights and promising to that Hungarian company that he would see to it that the loss-making gas business be divested from INA.

Lawyer Jadranka Slokovic said that the video footage was obtained in violation of several laws and that it was also in contravention of the Constitution.

She said that the video footage and a statement by the restaurant owner Mario Cerhak had not yet been admitted as evidence.

The material was given back to the prosecutors to explain at a preparatory hearing why they proposed it as evidence and how USKOK obtained that material, Slokovic said after Monday's session at which the indictment was upheld.

According to Slokovic, the defence is considering a possibility of suing the restaurant owner Cerhak because "there is no doubt that the material should not have been kept for two years."

The defence believes that the sole purpose of video surveillance is to ensure protection of the restaurant and with the cessation of that purpose it should have been destroyed.

Parts of the video recording were leaked to the media recently.

As for the proposal by the prosecution to merge the ongoing trial of Sanader in the Hypo bank loan case, in which he was accused of abuse of office as deputy foreign minister, with the MOL-INA case, Slokovic said that the defence team would not object to that proposal, adding that the two proceedings should have been conducted as one case since the very start.

As for her client's health condition, Slokovic said that Sanader, who is held in the Remetinec prison, still had problems with high blood pressure.

"He is receiving a new therapy, and in case it shows no results, he will have to undergo additional medical testing," the lawyer said.