Stjepan Fiolic, one of the defendants, has testified that he gave former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, another defendant, HRK 17 million (approx. EUR 2.27m) in commission for the sale of the building to the Regional Development Ministry through Hypo bank.
Milasinovic said Hypo's Austrian head office had agreed to the appraised price. But only a couple of months later, the bank found out that the ministry was not servicing its commitments because the new minister, Bozidar Pankretic, would not pay for his predecessor Petar Cobankovic's arrangements.
In the meantime, Cobankovic was appointed Agriculture Minister and indicated that this ministry would buy the building, the witness said.
The building was appraised again, by a company within the Hypo group, and its value was slashed from more than EUR 8.5 million to EUR 3.3 million, said the witness.
The first appraisal was done by a company owned by Mladen Mlinarevic, one of the defendants. The prosecution contends that the company inflated the value of the building but the witness said prices on the real estate market had declined in the meantime.
The witness could not say if, before transferring the lease to the Agriculture Ministry, Cobankovic had said it was necessary to obtain the government's approval, by which time, in 2009, Sanader was no longer in office.
An employee from Mlinarevic's company, Marko Bosnjak, who signed the appraisal documents, also testified. He said he was only a connection between Fiolic and construction expert Mate Bitanga, and that he did not discuss the appraised price with Bitanga, only informally asking him if he would pay so much for the building.
Bosnjak said the price seemed a little too high but that he accepted Bitanga's explanation that such was the market. He added that Bitanga provided the same explanation in writing to Mlinarevic in 2011, after the media started reporting about the Planinska case.
Cobankovic was also indicted but copped a plea with the prosecution and was sentenced to community service.