The trial of former Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union leader Ivo Sanader, charged with taking 10 million euros in bribes in exchange for enabling the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL to gain a dominant position in INA, continued on Thursday with the testimony of former Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic who was a member of a commission in charge of amending the shareholders' agreement on INA between the Croatian government and the Hungarian oil company.
Just like other commission members who have testified in the case, Bosnjakovic, too, said that the commission held only a few meetings and that it did not make any conclusions or did what it had been entrusted with.
"We didn't decide anything, we chose a legal team and carried out preparations, but no meetings were called after that," said Bosnjakovic, who later heard on the radio the news about an amended agreement between INA and MOL having been concluded.
The commission in question was chaired by then Deputy PM Damir Polancec, and its other members, apart from Bosnjakovic, were then Croatian Privatisation Fund director Vedran Duvnjak, then Finance Minister Ivan Suker, who was represented at commission meetings by Kresimir Dragic, and then state secretary Igor Lucic.
One of the commission's meetings was attended by representatives of the Hungarian company, Bosnjakovic said, adding that the divestiture of INA's gas business was not discussed at the commission's meetings.
Sanader asked Bosnjakovic if he had had any knowledge of the divestiture of INA's gas business, but the presiding judge did not allow the question.
Under the indictment, Sanader received from MOL executive Zsolt Hernadi 10 million euros in bribes to enable MOL to take over management rights in INA, which was later to have divested its unprofitable gas business.
