Defence counsel for former Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec has asked judges at the Zagreb County Court to remove two prosecutors of the national anti-corruption office USKOK from the case, citing suspicion of bias.
Defence attorney Anto Nobilo filed the motion before the formal opening of the trial on Monday, claiming that USKOK prosecutors Tamara Laptos and Marija Vucko had not entered into records everything the witnesses had said during the investigation.
Citing several examples to corroborate the defence's suspicions, Nobilo said that during the questioning of witness Drazen Sacer, the prosecutors did not record his claim that the accused had tried to prevent the Podravka food company from becoming a victim of a hostile takeover, Nobilo said.
Apart from Polancec, the accused in the case, dubbed Spice, are: former executives of Podravka Darko Marinac, Zdravko Sestak, Josip Pavlovic and Sasa Romac, manager of the SMS company Srdjan Mladinic, co-owner of Fima Group Milan Horvat, and lawyer Zoran Markovic.
They are charged with a conspiracy to buy a majority stake in Podravka with the company's own money, defrauding it of more than 400 million kuna (54 million euros).
Judge Sinisa Plese adjourned the hearing until Wednesday June 8 before the charges were formally read to the accused and they entered their pleas.
