The father- and mother-in-law of former Croatian Prime Minister and HDZ leader Ivo Sanader, charged with corruption, did not testify on Monday in the Fimi Media corruption case because they used the legal option not to testify against a family member.
Ivo and Karmela Saric, who were to have been the first witnesses to testify in the case, arrived at the Zagreb County Court this morning but after Judge Ivana Calic checked their personal information and told them that they did not have to testify against their family members, they decided that they did not want to be questioned as witnesses.
"I don't want to testify, if I have said something, I want it to be struck," said Ivo Saric.
Judge Calic then separated from the case file their statements given during the investigation. They will not be used as evidence.
During the investigation into the HDZ's slush, the bank accounts of the parents of Sanader's wife Mirjana were blocked as was their property which the anti-corruption agency USKOK believes had been bought with Sanader's money.
Saric was questioned during the investigation because his son-in-law allegedly used him to cover up his wrongdoing. A subsequent graphological analysis showed that Saric's signature on his savings-bank books in Austria had been forged.
The trial will continue on June 18, with the testimony of Ivan Jarnjak, a former secretary-general and vice-president of the HDZ, the first Croatian political party charged with corruption.
After Jarnjak, whose testimony is expected to last three days, the court will hear the current and former HDZ officials Branko Bacic (July 2), Jadranka Kosor (July 3), Damir Polancec (July 9), Marica Glavas (July 10), Darko Milinovic (July 16) and Bianca Matkovic (July 17).
Before the first witness testimonies in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Croatia, close to 14,000 various documents and statements given by indictees who have pleaded guilty to the charges were read out.
Even though they did not enter a plea deal with USKOK, former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic, the owner of the Fimi Media marketing agency, Nevenka Jurak, and former HDZ accountant Branka Pavosevic pleaded guilty to the charges. The first indictee in the case, Ivo Sanader, his spokesman Ratko Macek, and the representative and defence of the HDZ dismissed the charges that they had siphoned around 70 million kuna from state agencies and companies through Fimi Media, claiming that the HDZ's slush fund had been created without the knowledge of the party bodies.
