He was testifying at the Zagreb County Court in the trial for the siphoning of money from public companies into an HDZ slush fund that was used to illegally finance various activities, including the HDZ's election campaign.

Jarnjak said the HDZ's bodies had never discussed Thompson, but that he thought it was important to the HDZ that Thompson, since he would not perform for it in the campaign, should not do so for any other party either, since he could have swayed a part of the HDZ's voters.

According to the media, the HDZ paid the singer not to perform for any political party in the 2007 election campaign.

Jarnjak said he did not know who hired the singers, but that he knew that Mate Miso Kovac had met with former Prime Minister and HDZ president Ivo Sanader and that Nina Badric had met with with HDZ official Bianca Matkovic.

Asked if Ratko Macek had taken part in decisions on campaign financing, Jarnjak said Macek had been involved in the payment of HRK 5.2 million which the Scan Studio company claimed from the HDZ for the 2005 election campaign. He said it later turned out that the HDZ had no documentation on its transactions with that company.

As for the relationship between Macek, who was the manager of the HDZ's election campaigns, and former HDZ treasurer and Customs chief Mladen Barisic, Jarnjak said they had each other in their sights.

He also described the purchase of a BMW in 2008, saying Sanader ordered that the car be legalised as the one from 2004, and that there were problems with the presentation of the payment for the car.

Jarnjak said Barisic told him the BMW had been paid by Robert Jezic, to which he replied that the car did not exist for the HDZ because no payment had been made. Because of the recession, Sanader ordered that both cars be given back, for which the party had to pay an additional EUR 84,000.

Jarnjak went on to say that media reports linking the privately-owned Fimi Media advertising agency and the HDZ had caused great political damage to the party because people started suspecting as to how the party was run.

He said the relationship with the agency had never been discussed by the HDZ Presidency, which discussed only in general the negative media reports on the party. He said the Presidency should have discussed the matter, but that neither he nor anyone else has asked anything about it.

Jarnjak said the Presidency could discuss only what was on the agenda of the sessions and that the agenda was made by Sanader.

He realised that there existed a double set of documents in the party only after the replacement of accountant Branka Pavosevic, who then photocopied the documents and notes.

She was replaced in late 2008 because, after the law on the financing of political parties went into force, she could not do the final account for 2007. However, under Sanader's decision, Pavosevic was appointed financial secretary, retaining the same salary and a company car as well as continuing to pay monthly bonuses to some people.

Jarnjak said he knew that Pavosevic continued to go to the Customs Administration "for money counting" and that she was in contact with Sanader.

The defendants in the Fimi Media case are Sanader, the HDZ and four others. The trial resumes tomorrow, with Jarnjak on the witness stand again.

Although not plea-bargaining with the anti-corruption office USKOK, Barisic, Pavosevic and Fimi Media owner Nevenka Jurak pleaded guilty, while Sanader, his former spokesman Macek and the HDZ's legal representative pleaded not guilty to the siphoning of about HRK 70 million from state agencies and companies.

The HDZ is the first political party in Croatia accused of corruption.