The owner of a chain of butcher's shops and former parliamentary deputy of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Stjepan Fiolic, said at the trial in the Fimi Media corruption case on Wednesday that the accused former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, before escaping to Austria, had given him valuable works of art and two suitcases with expensive suits for safekeeping.
"Two weeks before leaving for Austria, Sanader called me on the mobile and asked if I could put his paintings in a safe place. I went to his place in a van and drove them to my yard," Fiolic told Zagreb County Court judges, noting that Sanader had asked him to come in a van without his company's logo.
The witness said he had brought to his place 15 paintings packed in plastic sheeting and had not touched them until Sanader ended up in jail. Only then did he and his wife realise what kind of works of art those were and that two suitcases that Sanader had personally brought to their home contained Brioni suits, ties and socks.
Fiolic added that Sanader's driver had later brought four more paintings to his home.
After Fiolic admitted this in an investigation of another corruption case, investigators took the paintings from his home, while Sanader came personally for his suits after he was granted a provisional release from prison.
Sanader objected to Fiolic's testimony, saying that it was a fabrication with which Fiolic wanted to secure a better position for himself in the other court case.
