The case is about 135 armoured vehicles commissioned from the Finnish company Patria during the term of a previous Slovenian government led by Janez Jansa, in which Erjavec was Defence Minister and Gutman was Army Chief of Staff.

Erjavec is president of the Democratic Pensioners' Party (DESUS), which is a partner in Slovenia's incumbent coalition government led by Borut Pahor where he served as Environment Minister until the beginning of this year, several months after he was indicted.

Dismissing the charges against him, Erjavec today opposed the proposal to hold a part of the trial behind closed doors, saying that everything regarding the case had already been published in the media.

The prosecutors said Erjavec and Gutman defrauded the state budget by agreeing to a bad deal with the Finnish arms manufacturer. Under the deal, Slovenia was to pay EUR 278 million for 135 armoured vehicles, but the deal was not in line with the Slovenian army's strategic documents and NATO standards because 25 vehicles did not have adequate equipment.

Over the past few months since details of the indictment were revealed, Gutman has refused to comment on the allegations, while Erjavec has said on several occasions that the indictment was rigged and that Patria was chosen in an international tender.

The trial of Erjavec and Gutman may be heralding a court epilogue of the scandal, but it is believed that its political dimension will be clarified only after a trial is scheduled for former PM Janez Jansa and several other people connected with him. Unlike Erjavec and Gutman, they are charged with corruption and with having been promised or given rewards by Patria for signing the deal, an allegation they have denied.

Former PM Jansa, who is now the head of the biggest opposition party in the parliament, insists that the scandal, which broke out several weeks before the 2008 parliamentary election, did not have any grounds and was rigged with the sole purpose of preventing him from winning another term as PM.