The defendants, alongside the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), as the first political party in Croatia on trial, and Sanader, are the HDZ's former spokesman Ratko Macek, former treasurer Mladen Barisic and former accountant Branka Pavosevic, and the owner of the Fimi Media marketing agency, Nevenka Jurak.
The presiding judge is Ivana Calic.
The indictment contains more than 550 pages and is one of the biggest in the history of the Croatian judiciary.
Sanader and Macek have dismissed the charges. The HDZ's defence has said that the defendants accused of siphoning state money for the party's slush fund did so without the knowledge of the party's presidency.
Barisic, Pavosevic and Jurak have confessed to the charges but did not reach an agreement with the anti-corruption office USKOK. Anita Loncar-Paper and Bojan Dimic did. Their companies were used to siphon funds from state institutions and companies in cooperation with Jurak's Fimi Media. Loncar-Papes was sentenced to 11 months' imprisonment and Dimic to six. They must pay back HRK 3.8 million in total.
At least 150 witnesses will be heard during the trial, including the members of the HDZ presidency which led the party when, according to USKOK, more than HRK 70 million was siphoned from state institutions and companies. About HRK 31.6 million allegedly ended up in the HDZ's slush fund from 2003 to 2009 and HRK 15 million in Sanader's pockets.
The HDZ slush fund scandal resulted in four other indictments - against former Interior Minister Ivica Kirin, former Croatian Motorways executives Mario Crnjak, Jurica Prskalo and Josip Sapunar, former Rijeka-Zagreb Motorway CEO Zlatko Korpar, and former Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund director Vinko Mladineo.
The total damage in the Fimi Media case is estimated at about HRK 100 million.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.47)