The presentation of evidence in a trial of six men accused of murdering Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic ended at the Zagreb County Court on Monday, after which the defendants were asked to address the court for the last time.
The first on the indictment, Robert Matanic, reiterated that he was not guilty and that he stood by everything he had said at the trial so far.
After the defendants, the defence and the Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK) will make their closing statements.
The last witness, police officer Boris Novak, said he did not know if third indictee Amir Mafalani had told his police acquaintance Nenad Sipusic that Pukanic would be assassinated, as Mafalani said in his defence.
Novak's colleague Domagoj Anic, questioned earlier, said that as head of the homicide department who was investigating the murder of legal trainee Ivana Hodak, he heard from Mafalani that he told Sipusic before the assassination that something would happen in Zagreb, without providing any details.
Anic said Mafalani used to come to USKOK in 2005 to testify about crimes for which Matanic had been indicted in Bulgaria, so that Croatia could request his extradition after his arrest in Serbia.
Asked by the prosecutor if Mafalani had mentioned plans to murder businessman Hrvoje Petrac and his sons, Anic said there was talk that Matanic had been hired to kill someone, but "it wasn't defined".
"He allegedly wanted to hire Mafalani, too, and there was mention of Petrac," said Anic.
The story that the defendants had also planned to kill Petrac and one of his sons was mentioned in court by key witness Tomislav Marjanovic, after which USKOK included it in the indictment.
Contrary to what Mafalani said, Anic told the court that he had never told Mafalani that Pukanic would be alive if he had told his suspicions about an assassination to him and not to Sipusic.
