A friend of Robert Matanic, the principal defendant in the trial for the murder of the Nacional weekly's co-owner Ivo Pukanic and his associate Niko Franjic, testified before the Zagreb County Court on Wednesday, saying that Matanic had used his garage to store "some stuff" which turned out to be a large amount of ammunition and weapons, including a sniper rifle.
The witness Dario Anic said the defendant Robert Matanic, with whom he socialised every day, brought "some stuff to his place in Donji Vukojevac near Sisak, adding that he did not know what it was. He said that his house was always unlocked and that Matanic put those things in his garage while he was lying on a bed.
He found out that the things were weapons when the police came to search the garage.
According to the indictment, the six accused planned to kill Pukanic from a sniper rifle in case the explosive device planted under a scooter parked by Pukanic's car failed to blow up.
Anic said he had seen the key witness Tomislav Marijanovic several times.
He went on to say that he had first met the accused Bojan Guduric at a house-warming party. Matanic brought Guduric along to the party given by Anic.
The witness said he had never seen the other two defendants Zeljko Milovanovic and Slobodan Djurovic.
He said that he had never discussed Pukanic's murder with Robert Matanic.
The trial was adjourned until next week.
