The bill of indictment says that Patria knew that even the best bid only represented 40% of the probability for selection in the tender to supply 135 armoured personnel carriers to the Slovenian army, while the remaining 60% depended on a political decision, so the company needed to secure that leverage.

To achieve that, Patria allegedly got in contact with Joze Zagozen, a politician, business executive and a close acquaintance of the then PM Jansa. Zagozen repeatedly demanded in 2005 and 2006 a 30% advance for intervention in the deal, according to the indictment, which says the money was remitted by Patria in 2007.

One of Zagozen's jobs was to "find the best partner for Patria in Slovenia". Patria's actual partner in Slovenia, Rotis, is run by Ivan Crnkovic, who is among the five defendants in the trial, along with Jansa and Zagozen. The latter told reporters that there was not a single proof against him.

"We have heard more speculations than you can find on Wall Street," Jansa said after the reading of the charges that went on for eight hours before being adjourned by the judge until next Monday. What is written on 80 pages of the bill of indictment could have been written on four, the Democrats (SDS) leader said.

Jansa argued that some people obviously got money in the Patria case, but that those people were not in court today. "Not only have I not got any promise of a reward, I have never even discussed Patria with the people mentioned in the bill of indictment."

He said that the fact that Finnish PM Jyrki Katainen had backed him ahead of the 4 December general election in Slovenia, where public opinion polls favour Jansa's SDS, showed that "they obviously know in Finland what this is all about".

The prosecution also revealed whom they would like to call in as witness: former chairman of energy company Petrol Marko Kryzanowski, chairman of household appliances maker Gorenje Franjo Bobinac, the boss of logistics company Viator & Vektor Zdenko Pavcek, Patria's former director Jorma Wittakorpi and Patria's representative for Slovenia Reijo Niittynen.

Even before the top prosecutor began reading the charges, judge Barbara Klajnsek rejected a new request by Crnkovic's lawyer for her exclusion on grounds that the reasons given for the exclusion were the same as on the request that had already been rejected before today's hearing.

The lawyer, Dejan Markovic, then made another request for the exclusion of evidence, which the judge would decide on by the end of the evidence procedure.

Meanwhile, Jansa's defence lawyer Franci Matoz, raised several objections, but the judge would not grant him permission to speak as she had already called on the prosecutor to start reading the charges. Since Matoz continued speaking, the judge slapped him with a EUR 350 fine.

The hearing resumed today after the court had rejected the defence's request for the elimination of evidence that the defence claimed had been obtained in Finland and Austria through abuse of human rights. Dissatisfied with the decision, some of the defence lawyers appealed at a higher court, which did not annul it.

Only three of the defendants attended today's proceedings at the Ljubljana Court House: Janez Jansa, Joze Zagozen and army officer Tone Krkovic. Crnkovic excused himself for health reasons, while businessman Walter Wolf was not served the invitation to attend as he was away in Canada.

Before the proceedings opened in the morning, a group of 30 supporters of Jansa gathered in front of the Court House, and some of them attended the hearing, but most of them had left by the time the hearing ended. The group included a person carrying a banner saying "The Reds are stealing from us".