The trial in the case dubbed Spice will begin on June 6 and some high-profile politicians are expected to testify, but a decision on possible testimony by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her predecessor Ivo Sanader will be made during the trial, reporters were told on Tuesday.
A prosecutor from the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK), Tamara Laptos, said 115 prosecution witnesses would be heard and that the case file had 42,000 pages.
She said about 30 defence witnesses would also be heard, but that a decision on whether to call Kosor and Sanader to the stand would be made in the course of the trial.
Laptos said the eight defendants could be sentenced to up to three years in jail for conspiracy to commit a crime, the organiser up to five, while abuse of office carried a sentence of up 10 years' imprisonment.
Defence counsel said some of their witnesses included Ivan Jarnjak of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union party, Peasant Party president Josip Friscic, and former President Stjepan Mesic.
Defence counsel said about 200 witnesses would be heard during the tral.
The defendants in the case are former Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec, former Podravka food company executives Darko Marinac, Zdravko Sestak, Josip Pavlovic and Sasa Romac, the director of the SMS company, Srdjan Mladinic, a co-owner of the Fimi grupa company, Milan Horvat, and attorney Zoran Markovic.
They are charged with conspiracy to use Podravka money to buy a majority stake in the company, defrauding it of more than HRK 400 million (approx. EUR 54m) in the process.
