The three defendants are charged with having approved, following intervention by the late Carinthian Governor, Joerg Haider, a EUR 2-million loan to the "Styrian Spirit" airline company, which later declared bankruptcy, and with having granted a EUR 150,000 loan to private detective Dietmar Guggenbichler, although they did not offer guarantees for the loans and failed to pay them back.

Charged with mismanagement, the three defendants face prison sentences of up to 10 years, if they are found guilty.

In addition, Kulterer is charged with having given false statements in this case.

The German Die Zeit political weekly forecasts that the first trial in the Hypo Bank case "is a quiet overture to a strong judicial opera which will display in the coming months and years the background of losses of billions of euros."

The weekly believes that the forthcoming trial and subsequent proceedings will shed light on connections between politicians and banks in Croatia where "billions have been buried".

Die Zeit recalls that Kulterer has denied any responsibility for money lost in Croatia, claiming that he has never heard of money laundering in Liechtenstein and that he has only superficially known former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, whom the German newspaper describes as one of the key people in financial scandals and who has been in extradition custody in Salzburg awaiting his handover to Croatia, where he is wanted for corruption.

According to Die Zeit, the Croatian prosecutorial authorities have an important role in clarifying everything in this regard, however, unlike Austrian judicial agencies, Croatian prosecutors probably have relatively little evidence in their possession against the former PM. In Zagreb, the investigation into Sanader is exclusively based on witness testimonies, while the prosecutors in Klagenfurt possess a document which seems to prove all accusations.

Die Zeit reports that there is a unilateral contract on commissions for an agreement on the loan No. 82 dating back to 10 January 1995 in which the then Carinthian mortgage bank approved a EUR 10-million loan to Croatia allegedly for the purchase of embassy buildings and for their furnishing, while the real purpose of the loan was probably the purchase of arms. The loan agreement was signed by the then Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic whose deputy was Ivo Sanader. A hand-written note added to the document reads that Sanader was handed a commission in the amount of five percent of the loan, in the presence of Wolfgang Kulterer.

This document, which has been recently discovered, can be of key importance for Croatia's request for Sanader's extradition, the newspaper reports.

The prosecutors in Klagenfurt will deliver this document only if Croatia allows a questioning of former army general Vladimir Zagorec who is serving a prison sentence in Zagreb, the paper writes, adding that Zagorec should be questioned in a separate case related to the Hypo bank scandals.