"Serbia shows crime pays" ex official says after EU decision

"Serbia shows crime pays" ex official says after EU decision

"These people have stolen the money and live in peace, if not them, then their children, and one day their grandchildren," he told Radio B92.

An EU source has been quoted as saying that the sanctions were lifted "because the individuals from the list no longer represent any threat to the EU." However there is no official information about the property in question, how it was acquired and where it is located.

"I feel furious and cheated, as well as all citizens in this country," said Korać, adding that this was "a sad story for our country, which probably makes many people indignant."

"Billions have been stolen and taken out (of the country), and I personally think that some privatizations in Serbia were a return of that money, but quite covertly, through other names. A large part of it (was used) to buy property abroad, possibly some companies as well, and we can only guess how much money went there, surely billions."

Korać believes that "the matter is more simple," and that the Serbian judicial system was "unable to deal with this":

"While this decision will, as usual, cause a lot of interpretations in Serbia, which could be called conspiracy theories - 'now they do not mind Milošević, who knows what they want from Serbia' - I think the matter is more simple.They think that 14 years after the freeze, and so many years since that regime has no longer been in power, that our judicial and financial institutions had the time to investigate those assets, for courts to resolve it, and in an appropriate manner, if they exists in Europe, to seek them. Since we have generally not done that, then they just can only imagine (what kind of) a justice system and a country has not dealt with it. "

Korać said that did not himself deal with the issue of the assets of the Milošević family and people close to his regime, but "has some knowledge about foreign currency accounts in Switzerland":

"Asfor what I learned, and that is very little, I did not deal with the problems of the assets of the Milošević family, or of the people close to the regime of Milošević, who were under the embargo until 2000 and were banned from traveling to the EU and the U.S., they were only later removed from the list and their assets were looked for. I only dealt with what was related to health (sector), and I know that Switzerland replied, that in that country a foreign currency account was found, quite large, of former Minister of Health Bojić, and they informed us that there was an account of Mirko Marjanović, the former prime minister. They froze those assets, but unfortunately, concerning Bojić, a judicial process was never possible against him, because he was at the time a federal deputy on the JUL (party) ticket, and after 2000, the decision was such, he had parliamentary immunity, he could not be prosecuted. Sometimes, where the money was found, the banks in those countries would freezeit , but in the West they seek valid court decisions that the assets were acquired illegally."

Korać is convinced that Serbia's judicial system "lacked the capacity" between 2001 and 2002, and adds: "Sometimes you could not even manage court proceedings as people had immunity that they did not want the deputies, in this case the Montenegrin opposition, to remove."

Referring to "the story about the Cypriot money," Korać said he was a pessimist, noting that this money - believed to have been transferred to Cyprus - "could be anywhere in the world":

"Each country is under obligation to, when sent an inquiry, a very serious inquiry, allow access to accounts of our citizens, 14 years have passed since then, who knows where that money went."

"If Russia has not extradited (Milošević's window) Mira Marković, or say General Vlastimir Đorđević, whom it did not even claim was there, and he was, why would it say what kind of accounts they have in the banks there."

Korać added that "the story about the Cypriot money is used for demagogic purposes, those talk about it, know very well nothing would come out of it."