Jelavic's defence attorney contested the validity of the documents, collected in two raids carried out by SFOR troops in April 2001.
Briton Michael Simmons, who chairs the three-member panel of judges, said on Thursday that the court refuted the objections of the defence counsel as groundless.
He explained that the former temporary manager of the bank, Toby Robinson, who had confiscated the material in the operations while under the protection of SFOR troops, had acted in compliance with the country's laws and valid decisions of the High Representative.
Robinson, who on Wednesday took the witness stand in the trial of Jelavic, accused of embezzling funds which Croatia sent via the bank to local Croats, said that the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH (HDZ BiH) had been suspected of having opened secret accounts in the bank which were used to finance the party, and that's why operations to check suspicious dealings had been launched. Robinson, a witness for the prosecution, said that two operations were launched on 6 and 17 April 2001 in the bank's main offices in the city of Mostar, with the purpose of collecting documents which might clear any doubts which the then Office of the High Representative had about business transactions of that institution.
Robinson will continue testifying on 11 November.
Jelavic, accused of embezzlement and abuse of office, is the principal defendant in the Hercegovacka Banka trial. Two other defendants -- Miroslav Prce, a former defence minister of the Bosnian Croat-Muslim entity, and Miroslav Rupcic, a former director of the Hercegovina Osiguranje insurance company -- recently pleaded guilty following plea bargains and received prison sentences of five and five and a half years respectively.
The trial against another two defendants, Ivica Karlovic and friar Ivan Sevo, was separated from the Jelavic trial as the two were charged with only one count from the indictment.