"I say that Bajic is falsifying the records and he can sue me for slander. That's the truth about the work and methods of the state prosecution," Sanader said in a Croatian Television talk show.
Sanader reiterated that he was innocent in all seven cases in which he was accused or suspected, saying all the proceedings against him were launched because Bajic was given political orders to remove him. "The government has changed in the meantime, but he can't go back."
Sanader reiterated that Bajic was coercing judicial officials by discovering to the court only depositions that were damaging to him and falsifying those in his favour.
He said a report on the performance of the State Prosecutor's Office said that as many as 97% of corruption cases ended in a conviction. "That didn't happen even in the Soviet Union in Stalin's time nor in Tito's Yugoslavia," Sanader said, adding that the judiciary worked better when he was prime minister.
He reiterated that Bajic was waging a "crusade" against him in which the majority of prosecution witnesses had to lie because of the cases in which they themselves were accused.
Sanader reiterated that when he was prime minister, Bajic used to come to his house to ask that he keep him in the office to which he was appointed by the Ivica Racan Cabinet. "He used to come to my house and gave me two paintings for which he is now prosecuting me," Sanader said, adding that despite the gifts and family get-togethers, he and Bajic were not friends but acquaintances.
"That's why I suggested him as a witness regarding my assets, because he knows what he saw when he used to come to my house."
Sanader went on to say that in order to prosecute him, Bajic frequently spoke to newspaper journalists and editors, giving them information about the former prime minister and his assets.
"Lacking evidence, Bajic is trying to create the impression that Sanader is guilty and that the court need not discuss it, only hand down a sentence," he said.
Sanader said there was no fight against corruption in Croatia but solely a fight "against Sanader." He said that in the anti-corruption office USKOK or the local police department there was a "room to destroy Sanader" in which "five people sit at computers, check all the bills and pressure witnesses."
"The state prosecution's job shouldn't be to win a case but help the court establish the truth," Sanader said, adding that in Croatia's legal system the prosecution had a considerably better position than the defence and the accused whose entire assets were under injunction during this time.
Asked by the anchorman why he suddenly resigned as prime minister, Sanader reiterated that he did not want to agree to territorial concessions to Slovenia and the arbitration to which his successor Jadranka Kosor agreed.
"She was a logical choice (as successor). She was my deputy and the first deputy prime minister for years," he said, adding that "with this experience" he regretted appointing her president of the HDZ and prime minister.
Sanader said it was a mistake to step down as prime minister because if he had not done so, Kosor and Slovenia's then PM Borut Pahor would not have signed a deal which he said could cost Croatia a part of the sea. He added, however, that had he stayed, Croatia would not have made such quick progress towards European Union membership.
Asked why he surrounded himself with "poltroons and toadies" when he was in power, Sanader said he had to work with the people at his disposal but rejected claims that all members of the HDZ Presidency tacitly supported his ideas and positions.