A former president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Youth, Mislav Banek, on Tuesday testified in the Fimi Media trial against former PM Ivo Sanader and the HDZ, and said that all the business of the then ruling party was conducted by the party's secretary-general, Ivan Jarnjak, and not the accused Sanader who visited the party's headquarters only once a week.
According to Banek, Jarnjak was the party's main operative and was responsible to implement the presidency's decisions.
Banek said that it was Jarnjak, who has been exempted of prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the trial, approved the business with the Fimi Media marketing agency which, according to the anti-corruption office USKOK, was used to fill an HDZ slush fund in one of the largest corruption scandals in Croatian politics.
Banek testified that he had no knowledge of any slush fund or that payments were made without receipts. He claimed that he had not heard that the HDZ worked with Fimi Media, however, the party's youth group conducted some business with the agency owned by Nevenka Jurak.
"I approached the secretary-general who approved the business and passed me on to Branka Pavosevic. I'm not sure whether it was her or Mladen Barisic who sent me to Nevenka Jurak, Banek said, adding that he had never discussed this with Sanader.
Like all the other witnesses for the defence, Banek said that the Sanader did not make any decisions on his own as the head of the HDZ. "Decisions were adopted at meetings of the presidency, Sanader just gave his proposals", the witness said.
He added that the presidency had complete confidence in the party's treasurer Mladen Barisic and cashier Branka Pavosevic who unlike Sanader, have admitted to syphoning funds through Fimi Media.
