There is huge media interest, notably among foreign reporters, in the trial of former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in the Hypo bank case, to begin on Friday, according to officials of the Zagreb County Court where some 200 reporters, including eight foreign crews have requested accreditation to cover the trial.
Forty-one editorial boards have obtained accreditation to cover the start of the trial, including the BBC, Reuters, the Chinese state agency Xinhua, Agence France Presse, the Associated Press, the RTV Slovenia public broadcaster, the Austrian ORF public broadcaster, and the German newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. No crews from neighbouring Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have sought accreditation to cover the trial.
Five members of the public and the GOLJP civil committee for human rights are interested in attending the trial as well.
Zagreb County Court spokesman Kresimir Devcic said this was the largest number of foreign media crews so far to cover a trial at the Zagreb County Court. Devcic added that everything was ready for the start of the trial to be presided over by Judge Ivan Turudic.
The trial will start at 9.30 am in the court's Grand Hall, which has room for 52 people.
The court audience will have to arrive at court at least 45 minutes before the start of the hearing for the purpose of police clearance.
The former PM and HDZ chief goes on trial over charges of war profiteering. He is suspected of having taken in the mid-1990s, when he was Deputy Foreign Minister, 3.6 million kuna in commission for a loan Croatia got from the Austrian Hypo bank.
This is the first case against Sanader which has entered the trial stage. Sanader has been in the custody of the Remetinec prison since mid-July when he was extradited by Austria.
The trial of the highest ranking Croatian politician to be put on trial for corruption will start with the reading of the indictment and Sanader entering his plea to the charges, which, if proven true, could result in his imprisonment for a period of ten years.
Sanader's defence team consists of Zagreb lawyers Jadranka Slokovic, Cedo Prodanovic and Goran Suic.
Sanader has insisted on his innocence in all anti-corruption investigations into him so far, including the one in the Hypo bank case. He dismissed "with indignation" the charges of war profiteering before the panel of judges that upheld the indictment.
He is expected to say the same at the beginning of his trial on Friday. He can present his defence at the start of the trial, but he is very likely to do it at its end.
The first trial of the former PM and HDZ chief, who, as it has turned out, is also a reserve lieutenant of the Croatian Army, coincides with a campaign for parliamentary elections to be held on December 4.
Jadranka Kosor, Sanader's successor at the helm of the HDZ, which has been heading the ruling coalition for the last eight years, confirmed on Thursday that the anti-corruption investigative agency USKOK was investigating the HDZ over alleged party slush funds which the media claim were used to finance, among other things, the HDZ's parliamentary and presidential campaigns.
The investigation into the HDZ is part of an ongoing investigation in the Fimi Media case, a corruption case in which Sanader is one of the suspects. Apart from war profiteering, USKOK has also indicted him for having allegedly taken 10 million euros from Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of the Hungarian oil company MOL, in exchange for securing a dominant position for MOL in the Croatian oil company INA.
