The head of the Clinic for Heart and Coronary Diseases at the KBC hospital in Zagreb, Davor Milicic, told the media on Saturday that he had scheduled Ivo Sanader for testing on Friday as the former prime minister insisted on medical check-ups as soon as possible expressing fear that something might happen to him.
According to Milicic, after his exam on Thursday, Sanader, who is being kept in investigative custody in the Remetinec prison, and the doctor agreed on additional check-ups on Friday with Sanader saying that the beginning of his trial was scheduled also on Friday. After that the doctor asked Sanader whether they should postpone the testing, but Sanader replied: "No, I am afraid that something may happen to me."
"I have written then that as far as we are concerned we are ready. The matter of trial and whether it will begin or not is not which we, doctors, can decide," Milicic told the media. The doctor holds that the proceedings against Sanader can be now conducted in safer circumstances after the testing ruled out possible immediate health risks for the patient.
According to Milicic, although Sanader is not healthy he can be deemed fit to stand trial.
The commencement of Sanader's arraignment in the Hypo Bank loan case, scheduled was Friday morning, was adjourned for 3 November, after Sanader told the trial chamber that he had health problems with his heart and pressure and that he had thought that he would be taken from the Remetinec penitentiary to the hospital and not to the court room.
After the statement by a an expert witness that Sanader was not fit to stand the beginning of the trial, the arraignment was adjourned for 3 November and Sanader was taken to hospital.
Sanader's lawyer Jadranka Slokovic denied speculations that in this way Sanader had stalled the proceedings, explaining that her client had been experiencing health problems for a few weeks, adding that his condition deteriorated in the last five days.
Department of Corrections head Branko Peran has said that Sanader knew that he was going to the Zagreb County Court for the beginning of his trial in the Hypo bank case on Friday morning, thus denying claims by the former prime minister who told the trial chamber that he would like to apologise for coming dressed casually because he had been told that he was going to hospital.
"Prisoner Sanader was informed yesterday by Department of Corrections clerks that he was going to court and his escort was conducted just as it had been on several occasions before and there were no problems," Peran told press on Saturday, adding that Sanader was escorted from the Remetinec prison to the court in accordance with the procedure applicable to all prisoners.
However, the defence team on Saturday again insisted that their client did not know that he was being escorted to court.
The former PM and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) chief is charged with war profiteering in the Hypo Bank loan case as he is believed of having taken in the mid-1990s, when he was Deputy Foreign Minister, 3.6 million kuna in commission for a loan Croatia got from the Austrian Hypo bank.
This is the first case against Sanader which has entered the trial stage. Sanader has been in custody at Remetinec prison since mid-July, when he was extradited by Austria. He is under investigation in a few other white-collar crime cases.
