The witness said that he had never invested in any joint business with Petrac, although they had been best friends for some time.
Gen. Zagorec went on to say that he had never entrusted Petrac with the task of keeping his money safe.
This statement was in response to claims by Petrac's lawyer Anto Nobilo, who said last week that his client used to do favours for Zagorec by keeping safe the money which Zagorec made through "murky dealings" while he was a senior official in the Defence Ministry.
Last week Nobilo said that Petrac, who had kept safe Zagorec's money and property for years, had neither reason nor motive to abduct Zagorec's son to acquire half a million euros, which the indictment alleges.
Zagorec reiterated what he said about his friendship with Petrac at the first trial two years ago. He and Petrac were close friends but they never embarked on any business together, Zagorec said today in his capacity as a prosecution witness.
Zagorec also described what happened in February 2004 when his son Tomislav, aged 17 at the time, was abducted. Tomislav Zagorec was kidnapped in front of his family home in Zagreb on 23 February 2004 and was released four days later after his father paid 750,000 euros, half the ransom demanded. The ransom money has not been found to date.
Asked by the prosecutor whether he could link an attack against him in a Zagreb garage building with the subsequent abduction of his son, Vladimir Zagorec said that he could not find any connection with his son's abduction. However, he now suspects that brothers Ivan and Libero Matekovic, who are accused of the abduction, might have been his attackers, although the men who beat him in the garage were masked.
The retrial of Petrac and other persons indicted for Tomislav Zagorec's abduction commenced last Friday.
During the first trial most of the indictees were tried in absentia. The Zagreb County Court sentenced Petrac to six years in prison for masterminding the abduction. Since at the time he was on the run and the sentence was handed down in his absence, under Croatia laws he was able to appeal to the Supreme Court for a retrial.
Petrac was arrested in Greece in August last year and put in prison in Igoumenica. On July 27 this year, Greek Justice Minister Anastasis Papaligouras signed a decision granting Croatia's request for extradition. Petrac was then transferred back to Croatia.
At the beginning of the retrial, the first indictee accused of Tomislav Zagorec's kidnapping, Ivan Ico Matekovic, pleaded guilty, while the other five indictees, including Hrvoje Petrac, pleaded not guilty.