Polancec said he had learned about it from Kosor herself when she had proposed a meeting with him through a go-between shortly after he had been released from investigative custody. The meeting was held in September 2010 after Polancec was released from Remetinec Prison from where he had sent several angry letters to the leadership of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, which was in power at the time.

"She asked me how she could help me. I repeated that they should hold a press conference and state their position on the decisions we had made together and for which decisions I was criminally prosecuted," said Polancec, who at the time was suspected or charged in several cases, including the INA case in which Sanader is charged with taking 10 million euros in bribes from the Hungarian oil company MOL to ensure it a dominant role in INA.

Polancec said he had asked Kosor that the HDZ should stand behind the decisions they had made together, to which she allegedly said that it had not been easy for her either when she had to decide on selling seven per cent of INA shares owned by the Veterans' Fund, which was opposed, among others, by a member of the Fund, General Djuro Decak.

When explicitly asked by Judge Ivan Turudic whether he meant to say that Sanader had ordered Kosor to sell the INA shares, Polacec replied affirmatively.

Polancec said that Kosor had attended several meetings with MOL executives regarding the amending of the shareholders' agreement on INA, adding that ministers Ivan Suker and Marina Matulovic Dropulic had also been present there. Polancec said that Sanader had been inclined to the idea that MOL should have a majority on INA's Supervisory Board.

"My impression was that he was not surprised or astonished by the proposal. He said there were pros and cons to it, but the words he used suggested that the idea was acceptable to him. He also said that a meeting of the inner Cabinet would be convened to discuss it," Polancec said.