Bebic was one of Sanader's closest associates and remained loyal to him after Sanader stepped down and several corruption proceedings were launched against him. He is one of several friends who put up their property as collateral so that Sanader could be released on bail.

Talking about how decisions on key political and economic issues were made at the Presidency of the former ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Bebic said "nobody imposed anything on anyone."

"There were situations when the (party) president (Sanader) had his points of view and asked that something be adopted, but very often his points of view were not adopted in their entirety," Bebic said, adding that there were also situations when consensus could not be reached, so discussions were postponed.

"Often, one could not choose between black and white. Solutions that would have less damaging consequences were sought. In the discussions, the important thing was whether to support something or not," Bebic said, adding that the HDZ Presidency members "were building their positions" in the discussions and then voted by raising hands.

"Sometimes one even asked to see the hand that was being raised, to see who was for something and who was not."

One of the situations when the HDZ Presidency did not choose between black and white was a discussion on amendments to the shareholders' agreement between the Croatian government and the Hungarian oil company MOL on Croatia's oil company INA.

"When the stakes were changed, one had to determine what were MOL's rights in relation to 2001, when those basic relations were set, and how that reflected on INA's supervisory and management boards," Bebic said, adding that parliament also discussed this matter and adopted its conclusions.

A decision was eventually made to adopt the changes to the shareholders' agreement, but the whole problem was very complex, Bebic said, adding that the agreement was good, as the government retained part of its rights in INA.

After Bebic, former Environment, Zoning and Construction Minister Marina Matulovic Dropulic was to take the witness stand.

Sanader is accused of receiving 10 million euros in bribes to enable MOL to have a dominant position in INA and to see to it that INA's loss-making gas business was divested.

Sanader is also on trial for receiving a HRK 3.6 million commission from the Austrian bank Hypo after the bank approved a loan to the Croatian foreign ministry in the mid-1990s to buy diplomatic offices, which is why he has been charged with war profiteering because at the time, Croatia was still in a state of war.