One of Sanader's attorneys, Cedo Prodanovic, told reporters after the hearing before the Zagreb County Court on Thursday that the defence now only knew they would call Hernadi as a witness.

Hernadi allegedly paid Sanader 10 million euros in bribes to secure MOL a dominant position in the Croatian oil company INA.

When asked if they would call Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, given their claim that core members of her Cabinet had known about details of the agreement with MOL, Prodanovic said they would decide on that before the next hearing.

The defence reiterated that they were against a video recording of a meeting of Sanader and Hernadi in a Zagreb restaurant being admitted as evidence, stressing that it was obtained illegally.

"If that recording is admitted as evidence, we will file a complaint with the Constitutional Court and with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We are not afraid of the recording, but we do not want an illegal piece of evidence to be entered into the case file," defence attorney Jadranka Slokovic said.

Prosecutor Tamara Laptos dismissed the claim that the video recording was inadmissible as evidence, saying that the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) otherwise would not have submitted it to the court. She added that the restaurant owner would have suffered penalties had he refused USKOK's request.

The court is expected to decide on which evidence will be used in the trial at the next hearing.