Former Croatian Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Ivo Sanader on Thursday questioned the veracity of the testimony of witness Damir Polancec, who used to be a deputy prime minister in the Sanader cabinet, particularly Polancec's description of how the decision had been made to amend the shareholders' agreement between the Croatian government and Hungary's MOL regarding their stakes in the leading Croatian oil and gas company INA.
Sanader is standing trial on charges of having received 10 million euros in bribes from MOL to secure it a dominant position in INA and to ensure the divestiture of INA's unprofitable gas business.
In response to Polancec's claims during today's main hearing at the Zagreb County Court that the accused had ordered his former deputy Jadranka Kosor to sell the INA shares held by the Veterans' Fund, whose president she was at the time, Sanader said that he could not have done it because the Fund functioned independently and made decisions autonomously.
Although during his testimony he said that the HDZ presidency had always followed the party leader's opinion, Polancec concluded that the amending of the INA shareholders' agreement protected all strategic interests of Croatia.
Asked by the Sanader defence team if during his management of activities regarding INA he acted according to his own beliefs or was pressured by Sanader into presenting those activities as good, Polancec told the court that there were situations when he opposed Sanader's conclusions but that in INA's case he did what he believed was right.
Polancec also testified about plans to separate the loss-making gas business from INA.
The witness said that Sanader attended talks on that topic for the last time after he had stepped down as Prime Minister because he was asked by his successor Jadranka Kosor to talk with the then Finance Minister Ivan Suker, Polancec and MOL CEO Zsolt Hernadi.
"Sanader made an introductory statement at that meeting, appealed for finding a solution and left the meeting. It was the last meeting on that topic at which Sanader was present. Stories about other meetings are sheer nonsense," Polancec said, adding that later Kosor herself confirmed to him that she had initiated that meeting.
Suker is expected to testify at the trial on Friday.
Former Hypo bank director Wolfgang Kulterer is also due to take the witness stand tomorrow, in a trial in which Sanader stands accused of war profiteering in the case of that Austrian bank's lending to Croatia in 1995.
