The trial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader in the Planinska Street case is expected to start on April 17, it was decided at a pre-trial hearing at the Zagreb County Court on Thursday.
Judge Jasna Smiljanic scheduled the hearing for April 17 and 18 and she will decide next Thursday on evidence that will be introduced during the trial when the pre-trial hearing is scheduled to continue.
Sanader, who testified at today's hearing, is accused of Planinska Street real estate fraud and the state budget embezzlement by at least HRK 26.4 million.
Prosecutor for the USKOK anti-corruption investigative agency Tonci Petkovic proposed that some 20 witnesses be heard.
Sanader's attorney Cedo Prodanovic proposed 13 to 14 witnesses, including former members of the Sanader cabinet.
A former Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) minister, Petar Cobankovic, on 7 March agreed to a plea bargain with USKOK in the Planinska scandal and the court ruled that a one year jail sentence be exchanged for community service.
Prosecutor Petkovic said then that Cobankovic had been proclaimed guilty for abuse of office and authority.
Another suspect in this case, former HDZ MP Stjepan Fiolic, too pleaded guilty to the charges whereas the Sanader insists that this is yet another in a series of trumped up political cases against him embarked on by state prosecutor Mladen Bajic in a "crusade war".
After being arrested last April Fiolic admitted to selling a building in Zagreb's Planinska street for a trumped up price claiming that he retained the money from the sale. However later he stated that he took around HRK 17 million to Sanader at the latter's request.
USKOK claims that Fiolic sold the building for a much higher price to Cobankovic, who was the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) minister of regional development at the time and that he was assisted in the deal to sell the building to the ministry. The building's owner, Mladen Mlinarevic, too is involved in this scandal.
