The former owner of the Dioki petrochemical company and key witness against Ivo Sanader in the trial for bribe taking from the Hungarian oil company MOL, Robert Jezic, said on Monday in the Fimi Media trial that he had received over EUR 300,000 in cash from the then Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) treasurer Mladen Barisic in order to pay for a luxury BMW for Sanader from abroad.
"It was said that the political situation was sensitive and that we needed to react quickly. I did not go into explanations, but it was my understanding that they did not want the papers to show that the vehicle was paid for from Croatia," Jezic said at the trial of former Croatian Prime Minister Sanader and the HDZ party.
He recalled that he had been invited to a meeting regarding Sanader's BMW with Barisic and BMW importer Zlatko Tomic.
He said that, given that at first he refused to be the one to make the payment, he started getting calls from the then prime minister who first suggested Jezic should make the payment and then explicitly ordered him to do so.
Jezic said that in the end he went to see Barisic in his office, who gave him over EUR 300,000 which he then paid BMW dealer Tomic from an account in Switzerland.
Sanader objected, saying that Jezic's statement was untrue.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
