"It is true that the bank in which the account of Mrs Sanader has been frozen by an order of the Zagreb County Court would not pay her out her last two salaries, and the defence considers it a violation of human rights and an unconstitutional measure, for which reason we will send a letter to the relevant authorities next week," lawyer Goran Suic, a member of the Sanader defence team, told media.

Suic said that according to the latest information the bank had allowed Mrs Sanader to open a new current account into which her salary would be paid in the future.

Suic said it was unacceptable that Mrs Sanader was not allowed to collect her salaries which she lives off, adding that in his opinion the temporary account freeze should not apply to regular income.

Suic said that the defence team had still not received a response from the national anti-corruption office USKOK to their request for access to the case file, so they had filed a request to USKOK to speed up the procedure. He added that they had neither received a response to their complaint about the confiscation of works of art from the Sanader residence in Zagreb.

Ivo Sanader is under investigation for suspected abuse of office and powers in the case of the state-owned power company HEP and for allegedly conspiring with other suspects in the case of privately-owned marketing agency Fimi Media to siphon off funds from state-owned companies and government ministries. At USKOK's request, several bank accounts of Sanader and his family in Croatia, as well as his and his wife's shares in two companies, have been frozen. Also, a large collection of art works owned by the Sanader family has been temporarily confiscated.