"Nobody gave or offered me any money. I was shocked when I heard Barisic make that statement. Since then I've experienced several unpleasant incidents. I don't know what Barisic's motive could possibly be to make such a statement considering that we don't know each other", Perkovic said.

Replying to Sanader's defence counsel who proposed Perkovic as a defence witness, he said that in the summer of 2007 he had gone to the Customs Administration via a friend, Father Slaven Milanovic Litre but that he could not remember whether he had gone to see Barisic or someone else.

"After being requested by Fr. Slaven, I took some CDs, pictures and tickets ahead of my concert at Maksimir stadium. I was in the midst of a tour and was getting a lot of engagements, appearances in schools, kindergartens and elsewhere and so I went to the customs office. I think we even had a picture taken", the witness recalled.

He confirmed that soon after that he purchased a piece of land in Zagreb's Remete suburb but that the money for that came from two partners in Germany. He claimed that he had a signed contract to that effect but that the Tax Administration did not take the contract into account and have charged him with HRK 1.3 million in taxes.

Another famous pop singer, Mate Miso Kovac was also to have testified today, but did not appear, due to poor health.

The prosecution claims that both singers were paid out from a party slush fund at Sanader's instructions. Kovac was reportedly paid to appear at the party's election campaigns while Perkovic was paid not to appear at election rallies of any political party. HDZ feared that if Perkovic was to appear for any of the extreme right wing parties the HDZ would lose their votes.

The prosecution claims that around HRK 70 million was syphoned through the private Fimi Media marketing company from state-owned companies to fill the party's slush fund.