Tobacco.org

Serbian, Russian prosecutions sign agreement 

Serbia's State Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac and Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yury Chaika signed an agreement on cooperation.

The agreement was signed in Moscow on Thursday between the two prosecutor's offices, Serbian State Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Tomo Zorić told Tanjug. . . .

According to the Belgrade media, Dolovac and Chaika should also discuss the proceedings instituted in Serbia against the widow and son of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Miloševic, Mirjana Marković and Marko Miloševic, who were given a refugee status in Russia, and therefore could not have been extradited to Serbia.

Mirjana Marković and Marko Miloševic are charged with heading the so-called Tobacco Mafia, and they are tried in absentia by the Special Court for Organized Crime.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco Mafia, assassinations cases take new turn? 

Serbia's public prosecutor has provided two key witnesses in the investigation of the so-called Tobacco Mafia, a Belgrade daily reports.

Blic newspaper writes today that the first witness is going to present new evidence against Stanko Subotić, aka Cane, who is accused of cigarette smuggling.

The other should provide information which would lead to the persons responsible for ordering and executing the murders of MUP Gen. Radovan Stojičić Badža and Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Pavle Bulatović.

The key witness was provided by means of international cooperation in the region and should give the prosecutor's office solid evidence, which would incriminate Subotić as a cigarette smuggler, according to this article.

Jump to full article »

"Cigarette amendment, rational move" 

The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) leader says his party voted in favor of a controversial amendment on cigarette excise because it "seemed rational".

The amendment was tabled by the ruling Socialists (SPS) and passed in parliament earlier this week.

Istvan Pastor also said on Sunday that the SVM had no intention of showing "favoritism toward some producers".

"Our entire parliamentary work should go in the direction where we do not look at which party sent a proposal, but whether the proposal itself is rational," he said, adding that the amendment "made a clear distinction between domestic and imported production".

"In a way," Pastor continued, "it isn't popular for the protection of domestic producers to start with cigarettes, but a more severe protection of the domestic economy is necessary at a time of the global economic crisis."

For this reason, he said, "distinction must be made between the Serbia-made and imported cigarettes". . . .

British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris operations in Serbia also protested parliament's adoption of the amendment.

Jump to full article »

• How cigarettes funded Balkan wars 

In the second of two pieces on organised crime accompanying his Radio 4 series How crime took on the world, Misha Glenny reveals the details of a cigarette-smuggling scam that funded many of the paramilitary killing machines in the Yugoslav wars.

The first counterfeit cigarettes appeared on the markets of the former Yugoslavia just days after the war broke out in June 1991.

These were fake Marlboros, Rothmans, Winstons and other well-known brands that had been manufactured in different parts of the Balkans and beyond. . . .

The cigarettes often arrived in the Balkans via Rotterdam and Asia

There was only one drawback - when you drew your first puff, instead of the familiar blend of Virginia tobacco, the back of your throat was assaulted by a taste akin to a mixture of sawdust and goat's dung.

It took a restless Serbian entrepreneur called Vladmir "Vanja" Bokan to provide the market with an improved product a couple of years later. . . .

He swiftly secured Greek citizenship and once again prospered as a master smuggler.

But on 7 October 2000, as he emerged from his Mercedes 500 in front of his villa, Bokan's face was obliterated by 29 bullets fired from a couple of semi-automatics. The killers were never brought to justice.

Jump to full article »

• Kertes enters plea in Tobacco Mafia trial 

The trial of an organized cigarette smuggling group continued today at the Special Organized Crime Court in Belgrade.

The members of the network, allegedly led by Stanko Subotić, are charged for having illegally imported cigarettes to Serbia during the 1990s.

There has been no official explanation yet regarding the Russian authorities’ recent rejection of a request to extradite Subotić, held in Moscow since April and released last week, the Ministry of Justice said today. . . .

The trial continued this morning with former Milošević-era Federal Customs chief Mihalj Kertes entering his plea.

Kertes rejected all charges against him and said that "the only correct thing in the entire indictment" was his name.

"The indictment says that I let trucks [loaded with cigarettes] through for three gangs, but it doesn’t say that I took my share. That’s impossible. Why would I allow the trucks to enter the country and not take my share? The prosecutor is trying to make me look like an imbecile . . .

Kertes was indicted for his alleged membership in a criminal gang led by Mirjana Marković, and Marko Milošević – the wife and son of Slobodan Milošević. . . .

The former customs chief also repeated the defense he used at his other trials, saying that "his end began" after he was appointed to the job, and after he managed to suppress smuggling and increase the customs revenues mulitfold in 1994.

Jump to full article »

Tobacco Mafia defendant pleads not guilty 

BELGRADE -- Sinisˇa Stojcˇic´, charged with illegally importing and selling cigarettes in the 1990s, yesterday pled not guilty.

He told the Special Organized Crime Department of the Belgrade District Court that it is impossible that his brother, former deputy interior minister Radovan Stojcˇic´, a.k.a. Badzˇa, "who fought against crime, could have organized a criminal group", the so-called Tobacco Mafia.

Sojcˇic´ said that the charges are a "product of hate against his brother and his business success".

He added his brother, a high-ranking MUP commander during the Milosˇevic´ regime, could not have smuggled and sold cigarettes illegally in 1997, because he was killed in April 1997. . . .

A group of nine people is being charged for illegally importing and selling cigarettes on the territory of Serbia in 1997, costing the state about USD 2mn.

Jump to full article »

Prosecution probes tobacco smuggling 

-- The Special Organized Crime Prosecution launched an investigation into a tobacco smuggling ring led by Anton Stanaj.

Stanaj was arrested at Belgrade Airport on September 13, while waiting to board a flight to Podgorica.

Interior Minister Dragan Jo�i� confirmed at the time that five more persons suspected of belonging to the same group had been apprehended, including Pajo Juri�, Stevan Stevanovi�, Erik Karadzon, Slavisa Jurisi� i Sre�ko Miranovi� . . .

Joćić explained that cigarettes had been smuggled from China, Croatia and Dubai, transferred via the ports of Bar in Montenegro, Bari in Italy and Rijeka in Croatia to reach Serbia and Hungary.

Jump to full article »

JTI invests US$ 45mn in tobacco plant 

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has invested US$ 45mn ito Senta-based tobacco plant.

The plant is expected to become operational by April 25.

JTI Senta Director Tamer Tetsirlioglu said the construction of a new production hall and the installment of production apparatus were completed, with new storage houses left to be finished by the end of 2007.

Jump to full article »

Tribunal: Milosevic Defied Docs' Orders 

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic defied doctors' orders to quit smoking and took unauthorized medication smuggled to him in prison, a U.N. war crimes tribunal report into his death said Wednesday.

In the most complete survey of events leading to the former Yugoslav president's death in March, the report cleared U.N. authorities of giving inadequate medical care, and said the fatal heart attack probably could not have been prevented.

Jump to full article »

• Courts turn attention to smuggling case 

The Special ProsecutorÂ's Office for Organised Crime will begin its case regarding cigarette smuggling activity in which members of the Milosevic family are mentioned.

Prosecutor Tomo Zoric said that this case, regarding the organised group involved in smuggling cigarettes from 1995 to 2001, will be taken over by the Special ProsecutorÂ's Office from the Belgrade and Novi Sad Prosecutors who were initially on the case.

The report given to the prosecution from the Belgrade office mentions the names of both Slobodan MilosevicÂ's widow Mirjana Markovic and son Marko Milosevic.

Jump to full article »

Some Doctors Say Milosevic Did Not Get Adequate Care 

Frustrated and filled with skepticism about Slobodan Milosevic's litany of medical complaints, the tribunal at The Hague at times failed to investigate them adequately, several doctors who had recently examined Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, said this week.

"His medical condition was not good, so we asked for additional tests to evaluate his cardiac situation," said Dr. Florence Leclercq, a French cardiologist who examined Mr. Milosevic for about three hours in November. "But these investigations were never performed, and now that's a problem." . . .

Mr. Milosevic, who had a history of smoking and high blood pressure, may well also have had undetected heart disease, doctors said.

"Refractory hypertension exists, and some patients are hard to treat," Dr. Delanghe said. He added that for Mr. Milosevic, the mental stress of being imprisoned must have been "a major cardiovascular risk factor in itself."

Jump to full article »

WESLEY K. CLARK : 'A Petty Hitler' ($$) 

During the Dayton peace talks, all of Milosevic's "qualities" were at display: his stubborn cunning and blustering outbursts, his often grandiose dreams of Serbia as one of the seven gateways of Europe, his patent disloyalty to his fellow Serbs and transparent lies about everything from Srebrenica to his attitudes toward other nations. He smoked and drank excessively, even as he complained about his blood pressure and his health. . . .

Predictably, his cause of death is being disputed by some of his Serb countrymen who blame the U.N. He will surely be lionized and glorified by the radical nationalists he so nurtured. . . .

Now there will be no conviction and Serbia's weak leaders will have to cope with yet another obstacle in re-educating and reorienting their people. His death is as much a tragedy as his life. Both in life and in death, Milosevic has deprived millions of people of justice, hope and a better future.

Jump to full article »

Milosevic Died of Heart Attack, Autopsy Shows 

An autopsy showed that a heart attack killed Slobodan Milosevic, the United Nations war crimes tribunal said here on Sunday evening in a terse announcement. The statement served only to deepen the mystery over the circumstances surrounding Mr. Milosevic's abrupt death just as his prolonged trial was finally nearing an end.

The autopsy result was disclosed as new evidence emerged that Mr. Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president found dead in his prison cell bed on Saturday, had been taking medicine not prescribed by his physicians, including an antibiotic known to diminish or blunt the effect of the medicines he had been taking for heart and blood-pressure problems.

Jump to full article »

Milosevic died in cell many critics termed luxury 

Slobodan Milosevic died in an en suite cell many critics said was too much like a luxury hotel room for someone charged with war crimes.

Milosevic spent the last five years of his life in the cell, which resembled a college dormitory room where he listened to Frank Sinatra CDs, watched television and mingled with other war crimes suspects.

Jump to full article »

Milosevic carried his defiance to the end 

When Croatian President Stipe Mesic warned Milosevic in 1991 that he could be lynched by his own people, Mesic said: "He just sat back, puffed his cigar and said 'We'll see who'll be hanged'".

Jump to full article »