The local media on Friday reported that following the request of prosecutors in this case, the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday decided to annul the status of protected witnesses in the Lijanvoc case.
This decision refers to all the six persons who have earlier been mentioned as possible protected witnesses, the spokeswoman for the Prosecution, Edita Pejovic, was quoted by the media as saying.
The Dnevni Avaz daily said that one of key protected witnesses should have been a jurist from Sarajevo, Zoran Nikolic, but after the Court's decision, he would have to give his testimony publicly.
Before he was dismissed from the office of Presidency member, Covic said that the entire indictment was based on a statement of a man, at the time a protected witness, whom Covic described as a man with criminal records.
Covic's lawyer Josip Muselimovic assessed that the Court's ruling as a turning point in the trial.
The lawyer added that this could be "an unpleasant experience for witnesses. There is a possibility that they were close aides to the indictees".
Covic, the four brothers from the Ivankovic-Lijanovic family, who are the owners of the Lijanovic meat-processing company, the President of the Bosnian Constitutional Court, Mato Tadic, a professor from the Sarajevo law school, Zdravko Lucic, are indicted of white collar-crime.
Covic is charged of abusing office. The indictment alleges that while he was the finance minister of the Bosnian Croat-Muslim federation, he made it possibble for the Lijanovics to evade taxes. Tadic is charged with taking bribery in those allegedly murky dealings.