This was the sixth indictment against Sanader, which charged him with abuse of office and murky dealings. The Zagreb County Court spokesman Kresimir Devcic told the media today that the court had received the latest indictment from the Zagreb County Office of the Chief State Prosecutor.

In February 2012, Sanader refuted all the allegations, claiming that electricity had been sold to TLM and Aluminij in accordance with government decisions.

"Those were decisions of my government and of all preceding governments, even those from the time of socialist Croatia, to help certain businesses," Sanader said last year after giving a deposition about the allegations that the state-run power company HEP had been defrauded of some HRK 650 million through the delivery of cheaper electricity to TLM and Aluminij.

"We aided the shipbuilding industry directly through state aid from the budget, some received assistance through cheaper electricity. In the cases of TLM and Aluminij, there is a political aspect which must not be ignored," Sanader told the press then, adding that such decisions were based on the political programme with which he had won elections twice, in 2003 and in 2007.

The Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office indicted Ivan Mravak, former management board chairman of the HEP power company, in the case involving the sale of electricity below the market price to the Sibenik-based TLM light metal factory and Bosnia's Aluminij company, in which HEP was allegedly defrauded of HRK 650 million.

In the HEP-TLM case the Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office has already issued an indictment against Mravak, Mravak's former advisor, retired general Ivan Kapular, and former HEP Supervisory Board member Zdenko Juricic. Mravak is accused of abusing office on the orders of former Prime Minister Sanader. Before filing the indictment, the Prosecutor's Office dropped charges against former Deputy PM Damir Polancec and former TLM director Ivan Kostan.