Defence lawyers for former prime minister and president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Ivo Sanader said on Thursday that the former executive of Austria's Hypo Bank in charge of operations with Croatia, Gunther Striedinger, confirmed in the trial against their client that Eugen Laxa existed and that it was Laxa and not Sanader who took kickbacks from from the bank.
Testifying before the Zagreb County Court on Thursday, Striedinger confirmed the authenticity of a note showing that during their talks in private, the accused Sanader had promised to the Austrian bank's former CEO, Wolfgang Kulterer, that the Hypo bank would have a preferential position in Croatia. The witness said that he had not been present at those talks but that he had compiled and signed the note about that meeting after Kulterer had described to him the subject of his conversation with Sanader, who was a Deputy Foreign Minister at the time relevant to the indictment. The note reads that the receiver of the commission was Eugen Laxa.
Striedinger told the court that he had been present on three occasions when Kulterer paid a commission to the man who introduced himself as Eugen Laxa.
Sanader's lawyer Cedo Prodanovic told reporters after the hearing that he did not think Striedinger's testimony was unfavourable for his client.
"The witness confirmed two-three crucial arguments of the defence, namely that the person called Eugen Laxa really existed. It is less important whether this is a real or an imaginary Laxa, it is important that this man and not Sanader was receiving kickbacks," Prodanovic said.
The witness said in court today that he could confirm with certainty that Sanader had not received kickbacks.
Striedinger said that the terms and conditions of the loan granted to Croatia in the mid 1990s had been agreed by Kulterer and Sanader in his capacity as Deputy Foreign Minister and that the 5% commission had been paid by the client, that is the Republic of Croatia. Sanader objected to that saying it was not true that he had been the chief negotiator with Hypo.
Asked by the defence why he stated in court today that he had seen Sanader at a parking lot in Klagenfurt, while at the questioning in Austria he said he had never seen Sanader in Austria, the witness said Austrian investigators asked him if he had seen Sanader at the bank.
Kulterer did not show up in court today.
Sanader is charged with receiving 3.6 million kuna in kickbacks from the Hypo bank to facilitate a loan to Croatia for the purchase of buildings for diplomatic missions. Sanader is also accused of taking 10 million euros in bribes from Hungarian oil and gas group MOL to secure it a dominant position in Croatia's INA.
The trial will resume on Friday when two new witnesses are expected to take the stand.
