Suitcase affair trial begins today

The so-called “uitcase affair case opens before the Belgrade District Court today. The accused are Dejan Simic, former deputy governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), and Vladimir Zagradjanin of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Suitcase affair trial begins today Simic was arrested in January 2006 on suspicion of having received a bribe of EUR 100,000 in his Belgrade apartment, while Zagradjanin is suspected of helping give the bribe. SPS President Ivica Dacic, who was in Simic’s apartment shortly before the arrests, was interviewed in the investigation, together with an official of the Israeli TBI Group Vladimir Cizelj, NBS Governor Radovan Jelasic, and former Director of the Kreditno-Eksportna Bank (KEB) Sekula Pjevcevic, who claimed that NBS officials had asked for EUR 2 mn from shareholders of KEB, whose work permit had been revoked. Pjevcevic was arrest in April 2006 as one of the leaders of a criminal group known as the “bankruptcy mafia,” whose members stand accused of financial fraud worth millions of euros.

Suitcase affair trial begins today

Simić was arrested in January 2006 on suspicion of having received a bribe of EUR 100,000 in his Belgrade apartment, while Zagrađanin is suspected of helping give the bribe.

SPS President Ivica Dačić, who was in Simić’s apartment shortly before the arrests, was interviewed in the investigation, together with an official of the Israeli TBI Group Vladimir Cizelj, NBS Governor Radovan Jelašić, and former Director of the Kreditno-Eksportna Bank (KEB) Sekula Pjevčević, who claimed that NBS officials had asked for EUR 2 mn from shareholders of KEB, whose work permit had been revoked.

Pjevčević was arrest in April 2006 as one of the leaders of a criminal group known as the “bankruptcy mafia,” whose members stand accused of financial fraud worth millions of euros.