The process against the man who led the former Yugoslav republic from 2004 to 2009 is part of an anti-corruption campaign which his hand-picked successor Jadranka Kosor has launched to help meet criteria to join the European Union in 2013.

A visibly thinner Sanader limped into the packed Zagreb county court with the help of a crutch before sitting down in apparent discomfort.

“I want to apologize for the way I am dressed. They told me I was going to hospital this morning because of my heart problems. Otherwise I would have worn a suit,” Sanader, casually dressed in a sweater, told the judge.

He is accused of taking a bribe of 3.6 million kuna ($680,000) in 1995 to facilitate a loan worth 140 million Austrian shillings (around $14.3 million) by Austrian bank Hypo Alpe Adria to Croatia.

At the time Sanader was deputy foreign minister and Croatia was fighting a war for independence from federal Yugoslavia.

Sanader is the most senior state official to answer corruption charges since Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. He has been held in a Zagreb prison since Austria extradited him in early July.

Sanader has also been indicted for allegedly taking bribes worth 10 million euros ($13.6 million) from Hungarian energy group MOL in exchange for allowing MOL a dominant position in Croatia’s oil and gas group INA . The court’s decision on that indictment is still pending.

There are four more current investigations against Sanader, the biggest related to his alleged creation and use of slush funds for his former party HDZ. He has denied any wrongdoing.

State prosecutors have also started investigating the entire HDZ party.

Croatia’s anti-graft drive remains under scrutiny from Brussels although the Kosor government completed accession talks in June.