Branko Radosevic, former director of the state-owned gas transmission system operator Plinacro, said at former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's Zagreb County Court trial on Wednesday that Sanader had told him he would have to resign if he did not agree with the oil company INA on a takeover of the Okoli gas storage facility, which was one of the terms for divesting INA's gas business.
"He told me to give a little with those Hungarians because we needed them," Radosevic said in response to a question from the prosecution, which has indicted Sanader for taking EUR 10 million in bribes to give the Hungarian company MOL the dominant position in INA and divest INA's unprofitable gas business.
Radosevic said that apart from Sanader, former INA Board member Jozo Petrovic had also been urging him to sign the Okoli deal. The witnesses said he had suspended the negotiations on the matter because INA did not agree to a clause stipulating that the contract be annulled if Plinacro did not ensure the money for the takeover.
Radosevic said Petrovic had introduced himself as a person whom the PM trusted and that Sanader "would be mad if the deal wasn't closed as soon as possible."
The witness also said the divestiture of the gas business had been discussed at government sessions and meetings attended by then Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor and ministers Marina Matulovic Dropulic and Ivan Suker.
Radosevic said a deal was eventually agreed that protected Plinacro's interests because the government had guaranteed to repay the loan required to buy Okoli.
Responding to a question from the defence, he said the purchase was not justified, as the government had previously sold the storage facility together with INA, so the re-purchase of Okoli was an additional cost that made the price of gas to rise in the long term.
