The founder of Euroherc and president of the Agram concern told the Zagreb County Court that Sanader and Seks asked for a large donation from Euroherc as one of the five companies which the HDZ had decided should help it raise EUR 5 million for the election campaign.
Grgic said he told them the company could not pay such a high amount and offered that the HDZ insure its assets with Euroherc and receive 18 per cent in commission. He said both officials liked that and that Seks commented that 156 mayors in Croatia were in the HDZ, however, the HDZ heads never contacted him and nothing came of the proposal.
Grgic said that during the meeting, Sanader asked him, "without others hearing," for 50,000 or 100,000 German marks he would personally need for the campaign, but that he did not respond.
Sanader told the court he never asked for money for himself and that at the time in question, the German mark had already been replaced by the euro.
The counsel for the HDZ, the first political party in Croatia to be indicted, also objected that German marks were no longer in use at that time.
The HDZ's defence claims that the party's bodies did not know that money was siphoned from state institutions and companies into an HDZ slush fund through the Fimi Media agency, while Sanader and his former spokesman Ratko Macek claim they are victims of political prosecution.
However, the accusations have been confirmed by Fimi Media owner Nevenka Jurak, former HDZ treasurer Mladen Barisic, and former HDZ accountant Branka Pavosevic.
Before Grgic, two other HDZ employees testified to receiving fees from the party without a contract.
Sanader was last week sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment pending appeal in another case and must return HRK 3.6 million received in commission from Austria's Hypo bank, while key witness Robert Jezic must pay EUR 5 million into the Croatian budget which, under the ruling, the Hungarian oil company MOL paid Sanader as a bribe for a dominant position in Croatia's INA.
Jezic's attorney Marijan Hanzekovic told the media that his client yesterday deposited shares into his office equal to the amount that Jezic is to pay into the state budget if the verdict is upheld.