Nikolic took the witness stand on Tuesday claiming that the four Ivankovic-Lijanovic brothers, the owners of the Lijanovici meat processing comapny, Dragan Covic who is now the HDZ BiH party leader, as well as Mato Tadic, the president of the Bosnian Constitutional Court, and law professor Zdravko Lucic, were involved in tax evasion and bribery as well as the abuse of office.
On Wednesday the witness said he was not able to continue testifying unless necessary protection was ensured for him,
"Currently, I am not capable of giving any statement," Nikolic said in a courtroom in Sarajevo where he arrived from abroad where he has been living since the prosecution provided him with a status of protected witness. In the meantime, this status was revoked,
Nikolic said that he had on his own will contacted prosecutors with the only goal to help "reveal the truth". He added that he accepted to testify provided that he could enjoy the necessary protection. Nikolic went on to say that those were only promises which were never fully honoured.
According to Nikolic, his case clearly evidences that the institute of protected witness in Bosnia-Herzegovna does not function.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rattel agreed with Nikolic that the the treatment of protected witnesses in Bosnia was insufficient, but disagreed with him on his refusal to discontinue with his testimonies.
Defence lawyers for the indictees once again asked the court to eliminate Nikolic's testimony, claiming that he could not be treated as a credible witness.
The panel of judges, presided by American Richard Gebelein, decided to adjourn the trial until Friday and warned Nikolic that he would have to continue testifying or he would be fined with up to 15,000 euros.
The indictment alleges that the four Lijanovic brothers bribed Covic, who was then the finance minister of the Croat-Muslim entity, to enable them to evade taxes and customs duties which their company was bound to pay. Tadic also received bribes so as to ensure court rulings in favour of the Lijanovics' company, accoridng to the indictment.
At the start of the trial in mid-October, the accused and their defence teams criticised the indictment, saying the charges were trumped-up.