Vladimir Sisljagic, the president of the regional party HDSSB whose parliamentary deputy Glvas is, earlier in the day gave to reporters Glava's statement in writing and on DVDs, and claimed that sources from Sanader's closest aides told him earlier this week that Sanader insisted that the court deliver a guilty verdict and sentence Glavas to prison.
Sisljagic said that therefore the HDSSB party had taken Glavas to a safe place.
According to the video recording, Glavas criticised his guilty verdict as "yet another defeat" of the law and justice in Croatia under "the dark rule of Ivo Sanader".
Glavas said in his statement that the entire trial was "a political and judicial farce", and accused several witnesses from his trial of being killers, criminals, rapists, abusers and alcoholics. He described Sanader as "a mobster and criminal".
The Croatian Government issued a statement later in the day refuting the claims of interference of the executive authorities in the work of the judiciary. The statement dismissed such claims as "untrue, tendentious and ill-intentioned."
The government declined to comment on the Zagreb County Court ruling, explaining that it was not the government's practice to comment on court verdicts that were not final.
"Croatia is a law-based and democratic country in which no individual is or can be above the law, including the persons sentenced in this case pending appeal," the government statement says.
The statement said that claims about the government's interference in the trial "are futile attempts to shift the entire case from the sphere of the judiciary to the political sphere" which the government "dismisses most resolutely".
Glavas was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment pending appeal on Friday for war crimes committed against Serb civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991, while the other five defendants were given prison terms ranging from five to eight years.