LOCAL PRESS
U.S. suffocating UNMIK (Novosti)
Novosti has learned that around three and a half million dollars less will be allocated this year for UNMIK’s work in Kosovo and Metohija, according to the budget proposal, while the U.S. and Great Britain advocate the reduction of UNMIK members. These sources also state that the intention is to abolish 20 posts, along with certain strengthening of the mission in the domain of human rights, support to communities, as well as the role in the north of the province. The Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly will decide next month how much money will be allocated and how many people will be employed. According to the draft budget, 36, 5 million dollars is intended for UNMIK from 1 July this year until 30 June 2017. “UNMIK’s role is crucial for the Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. Working within the framework of UNSCR 1244, UNMIK provides prerequisites for a status-neutral Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the implementation of agreements towards full normalization of relations, trust and stability in the region, as well as the prerequisites for a normal life of all residents in Kosovo and Metohija. That is why we expect UNMIK to continue to implement its mandate in full capacity,” the Office for Kosovo and Metohija told Novosti. However, according to the U.S. and British representatives in the UN, “it is time to seriously reduce UNMIK’s presence”, while part of the personnel of this mission could be used in other parts of the world. Both Washington and London advocate the reduction of the budget allocated for the mission’s work, and both propose that Security Council sessions on Kosovo be less frequent. UNMIK headquarters told Novosti: “We have no indications that the budget for the mission and the number of our staff will be significantly reduced. We continue to work as usual.”
Dacic: Status neutral engagement of CoE in Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug/RTS/B92)
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has stated in Sofia that only the status-neutral engagement of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Kosovo and Metohija is acceptable for Serbia, along with respecting UNSCR 1244. “We expect the CoE to continue to consistently respect this principled stand,” said Dacic while addressing the participants of the 126th CoE Committee of Ministers meeting. Dacic pointed it was indisputable that Europe was tested regarding tolerance and solidarity in several fields, and it could hardly overcome all difficulties it was facing without both. “In that spirit, I remind you of the constructiveness that Serbia has demonstrated by accepting the interaction of the CoE with the provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo and Metohija in their functional capacity.” According to him, the higher goal in this case is our assurance that the activities of the CoE in Kosovo and Metohija should continue for the sake of an efficient implementation of principles and standards in the domain of democracy, protection of human and minority rights, rule of law and protection of cultural heritage. Dacic also assessed that the current migrant crisis was a challenge without precedent for Europe and a kind of test of political solidarity and maintaining stability. He reminds that Serbia is one of the countries that was and remains under the attack of a large wave of migrants. “This represents a big burden for our country, which otherwise has the painful experience with refugees and internally displaced persons,” said Dacic. He stressed that the migrant crisis requires a resolute and, most of all, united and coordinated response of all European states.
Nikolic to start consultations on government formation (B92/Tanjug)
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will conduct on Thursday consultations with the SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic in regard to the formation of the Serbian government. The President’s press service announced that consultations will be held in the building of the Presidential General Secretariat at 2 p.m. Following consultations with representatives of lists that secured seats in the new convocation of the Serbian parliament, Nikolic will appoint a new prime minister designate. Since the list headed by the SNS secured the parliamentary majority with 131 deputies, Vucic will have the opportunity to form a new government, but for the time being there is no information who will be part of it.
Nikolic receives assurances from Algerian officials: We will not recognize Kosovo (Novosti/Tanjug/Beta)
On the second day of his official visit to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic met with the Speaker of the Algerian People’s National Assembly Mohamed Larbi Ould Khelifa. During the meeting with Nikolic on Tuesday, Ould Khelifa said that, like Serbia, which was trying to maintain stability in the Balkans, Algeria sought to restore stability in its own region. Ould Khelifa said that stability and respect for international law were prerequisites for development. Observance of this principle is the basis for Algeria’s position not to recognize independence of the so-called Kosovo, he said. Nikolic said that when it came to Kosovo and Metohija, support from friends all over the world was very important to Serbia and it was thankful to Algeria for keeping its principled stance. He pointed to good bilateral cooperation and expressed the hope that the two countries would take advantage of all the potentials that were there and improve economic cooperation, the Serbian president’s press office said in a release. Nikolic, who arrived in Algiers on Monday, was greeted with full military honors and first met with Abdelkader Bensalah, president of the Council of Nation of Algeria, with whom he talked about opportunities to expand bilateral cooperation.
Djuric: State border with Kosovo and Metohija will never exist for Serbia (B92)
The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said on that Serbia couldn’t tolerate a move by Kosovo Albanians to choose “at whim” negotiators in the Belgrade-Pristina talks in Brussels. Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said earlier that attempts by Serbia to hinder Kosovo’s moves to join European and international organizations and institutions might make Kosovo reconsider the format of the talks on normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, and demand that the opposition in Pristina and non-governmental organizations should join the dialogue, too. Djuric said in an interview with TV B92 that the talks with Pristina had never been easy, but that Belgrade had never asked for specific Kosovo Albanian negotiators, and never would. A state border between Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija will never exist for Serbia, Djuric said, dismissing as absurd the announcements from Pristina that a demarcation of borders would be the priority of the next round of the Brussels dialogue.
“For Serbia, there will never be a state border between Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija, as it does not exist under our Constitution. For us, that is not a border, but rather an administrative line and this will be the case as long as this Constitution and people exist,” Djuric said. He said that Belgrade was ready to discuss ways to ensure an easier flow of people between Belgrade and Pristina. The Community of Serb Municipalities will be established despite the announcements from Pristina, in line with the agreements reached in Brussels, he said. Speaking about Kosovo’s membership in FIFA and UEFA, Djuric said the statutes of the international sport organizations had been breached, adding that Serbia would continue its fight before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
Introduction into withdrawal of foreign military presence from Kosovo (Danas)
By adopting the declaration and the recommendations to the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) in Pristina yesterday, which was signed between Kosovo and the EU and the session of the parliamentary committee for Stabilization and Accession (SAPC), a political atmosphere and introduction into the withdrawal of the foreign military presence from Kosovo are being created. Sources from the European Parliament who did not want to talk about it publicly interpret this for Danas, who base their conclusions regarding the withdrawal of the foreign military presence from Kosovo on the talks they had with NATO representatives. Our sources belong to the group from the EU countries that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence and that are lobbying against it. Danas had insight into the draft of the declaration and the amendments to the text of the declaration, which tell us that there is still a group within the EU, which during significant political events, in the context of the European Kosovo integration, attempts to soften the forms of Kosovo’s independence and continue to insist on that fact. So, in the part of the draft which welcomes the Agreement on Stabilization and Association entry into force, signed between the EU and Kosovo on 1 April, as a first contractual obligation and the base for establishing a joint institutional frame between the EU and Kosovo, satisfaction is being expressed for the SAPC being the first joint body founded under SAA, which paves the way for Kosovo’s EU integration, especially improving political dialogue and closer integration of trade. The Committee called on the Kosovo government to focus on the implementation of concrete reforms which are necessary for fulfilling the obligations from the SAA. In the amendment to the text there is a need for the part of the text mentioning satisfaction because of “the paved way for Kosovo’s EU integration”, to be taken out, but it confirms the call to the Kosovo government to focus on the implementation of concrete reforms necessary for fulfilling the obligations from the SAA. The second point of the draft declaration reads that five member states didn’t formally recognize Kosovo and points out that recognition would help Kosovo’s EU integration, would increase stability in the region and would enable normalization of the relations between Serbia and Kosovo. The amendment to the text underlines that eighty-five UN member states didn’t formally recognize Kosovo’s independence. The third point of the declaration welcomes the progress achieved in the process of normalization of the relations between Kosovo and Serbia, but expresses concerns regarding the number of missing persons and poor progress regarding this issue. It calls for revealing of the truth, as a precondition for starting a process of mutual reconciliation. The amendment just expresses the concerns regarding the high number of the kidnapped and missing persons, members of all ethnic groups, especially: Serbs, Turks, Romas and Goranis and notices with concern that only five cases have been solved in 2015, which is the lowest annual number since the end of the conflict. It reminds that the case of 1.666 missing persons remains unsolved to this day. The fourth point of the declaration welcomes the long awaited decision of the Commission to recommend a visa-free regime for Kosovo residents and calls the Council to adopt it fully and promptly, complementing the work of the Kosovo government in ending the illegal migrations trend, with the acclamation that the short term measures should be followed with socio-economic measures. The amendment, on the other hand, points out strong disagreement with the decision of the Commission to recommend a visa-free regime for Kosovo, with a reminder that 40 percent of the Kosovo population is unemployed and that 10 percent of Kosovo’s 1.6 million residents went abroad in 2014.
Who served Serwer (Politika, by Jelena Cerovina)
“Serbia has no choice and it will have to somehow satisfy Zagreb if it wants to continue negotiations with the EU”, “Republika Srpska must never willfully resort to a referendum on secession nor will it become an independent state”, and Serbia “would not wish all those Albanians from Kosovo as its citizens, who would?”, but certainly “somebody in Serbia will take courage and state that the issue of Kosovo is done”. These are only some of the messages uttered during the visit to Belgrade by Daniel Serwer, presented in our public as a “good connoisseur of state-of-affairs in the Balkans”. This Albanian lobbyist from Washington visited Serbia last week as the guest of Aleksandar Rodic, i.e. his magazine Newsweek: he held a lecture at the Political Science Faculty, gave several interviews, and he was also received by the state leadership. Following the meetings with Aleksandar Vucic and Ivica Dacic, their cabinets had issued almost identical statements on the necessity of “stability in Western Balkans”, just as they would had a prominent foreign statesman visited Belgrade. Who is actually Daniel Serwer and why did he deserve a statesman treatment? Former director of the Balkans Department at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which he left under mysterious circumstances, at present assistant professor at the John Hopkins University, is one of the biggest from the club of advocates of independence of Kosovo in Washington. He has devotedly worked on this goal since the 1990s. The public here heard about him when he testified in 1998, together with Slavko Curuvija, Boris Karaicic and Milan Panic, in the U.S. Senate on the necessity to increase the U.S. assistance to democratic forces in Serbia, and the U.S. administration listened to this advice. He supported the opposition to Milosevic, perhaps not as much as he did the Kosovo Albanians whose right to a state he advocated even after the democratic changes in Serbia in 2000. That is why he entered in 2003 a conflict with Zoran Djindjic. When the Serbian prime minister called him an Albanian lobbyist, and accused his Institute of Peace of passing decisions on Serbia at secret meetings, Serwer responded that this was not correct. “That statement is not credible and Zoran Djindjic knows this very well. He should be reminded of the assistance that our Institute of Peace offered to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) and our balanced reports and thoughts on the situation in the region over the past years,” responded Serwer. This Institute was established by the U.S. Congress, and it is financed from the U.S. budget, just as many NGOs in this country. It doesn’t always advocate peaceful solutions of disputes, which could be concluded from its title, but often military solutions as well. It remained noted that at the beginning of 2000 Belgrade intellectual Aleksa Djilas responded to Serwer’s remark that his Institute considers “there should be reconciliation after the war”: “The problem with your Institute is that you think that there should be a war before reconciliation.”
Serwer arrived to the post of the Balkans director from the post of an influential official in the intelligence service of the State Department. Before that, from 1994 to 1996, he was a U.S. envoy for the Muslim-Croat Federation in B&H. Wherever he was, Serwer always advocated the interests of Zagreb, Pristina and Sarajevo, never of Belgrade. As it may be seen from his latest statements, nothing has changed here, only that he is now firmer than his colleagues in the State Department. If he is not satisfied with the U.S. foreign policy, this is because he considers it too soft towards Republika Srpska, but also Belgrade, says analyst from Washington Obrad Kesic. Even though Washington has for years held a fierce course towards the RS President, this is not enough for Serwer: according to him, Washington is allowing Dodik “too much freedom”. He also thinks that the U.S. administration needs to increase pressure on Belgrade so Serbia would accept as soon as possible that Kosovo is an independent state. He is not against our EU membership, because he claims that Serbia needs the accession negotiations with Brussels in order to “cure the illnesses it has”. He told Blic that “conducting a balanced policy as President Tomislav Nikolic has been doing is absurd. Vucic was clear on this issue”. He insinuated that Serbia doesn’t want Kosovo Albanians, but only the territory. “Do you really want the Albanians in your soccer team?” he rhetorically asked the Blic journalist.
Politika’s interlocutor from diplomatic circles says that Serwer is always where the focus is. “He is a classic opportunist, he goes where the money is. When the war was ongoing in B&H, he was the main expert for the Balkans, even though he didn’t know anything about it until he started dealing with the Federation. When the bombardment of Serbia arrived, he was an expert for Kosovo and the Albanians. He was riding on this while he could. Then he shifted the attention to terrorism and Afghanistan, then Iraq. In short, he was an expert wherever there was someone to pay this and wherever there was media attention. His main asset is that he has friends in Congress, he constantly testifies there and receives space, and based on that, he sells himself here as an important factor,” explains Politika’s interlocutor. Perhaps these words could be corroborated by Serwer’s remark to the contract signed in 2010 by the then leader of the Serbian Progressive Party Tomislav Nikolic and former U.S. ambassador William Montgomery whereby Nikolic intended to engage this diplomat to help him improve the party’s image in the U.S. and EU. Serwer called this arrangement as a “waste of money”, and advised Nikolic to schedule meetings in Washington without a mediator, warning him that he “chose the wrong liaison agent”.
REGIONAL PRESS
Izetbegovic: Crucial to harmonise Coordination mechanism for all levels of government (Srna)
B&H Presidency Chairman Bakir Izetbegovic talked with Hoyt Brian Yee, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, on B&H’s progress in the Euro-Atlantic integrations process and the obstacles appearing on that path, with a special interest shown to the Mostar issue. Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs of the United States Hoyt Yee said in Sarajevo that the US is not satisfied with the pace of reforms in B&H, but that they are committed to supporting B&H on its European path. Presidency Chairman Izetbegovic said in Sarajevo that crucial for B&H is to harmonies Coordination mechanism for all levels of government in B&H, and to fully agree on the trade part of the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
Reiner didn’t address reporters because Croatian flag was not displayed at RS Assembly (Srna/Fena)
After yesterday’s meeting with representatives of the Republika Srpska (RS) Assembly in Banja Luka, Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Zeljko Reiner refused to make a statement for the press over Croatian flag not being displayed in hall of the parliament building. Reiner did not address the reporters, because the speaker platform at the entity parliament did not display the Croatian flag, only two flags of the RS. The RS Assembly announced that the flags of the countries whose official visitors this institution is hosting, have never been displayed in the hall of this institution, thus the meeting with the delegation of the Croatian Parliament was no exception. Zeljko Reiner, who is on a two-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, said on Tuesday in Mostar that in B&H “Croats are constituent people on paper, but in real life it is not always so”.
Crnadak: No opportunity to review the abolition of visas for the citizens of Kosovo (Srna)
B&H Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak has said that for the time being, there is no opportunity to review the abolition of visas for the citizens of Kosovo, but certain mitigation of procedures is possible.
OSCE condemns attacks against reporter in Banja Luka (Fena)
“The recent attack against Petar Panjkota, reporter with RTL television in Banja Luka is unacceptable,” says Dunja Mijatovic. It must be fully investigated, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media added on Tuesday. In a statement posted on its website, the OSCE cited media reports that said Panjkota was on 14 May “hit in the head by an unknown assailant shortly after finishing a live report from demonstrations in Banja Luka”, adding that the attack has been reported to the police. “I condemn the attack on Panjkota and call on the authorities to fully investigate this incident and prosecute the person responsible. Journalists must be able to cover demonstrations in a free and safe manner. It is the duty of law enforcement to ensure that journalists can report safely,” Mijatovic said. The statement added that TV BNcrew members Danina Milakovic and Pavle Ivanovic were verbally abused while covering the demonstrations, while Vladimir Kovacevic, also with BN TV, received threats on social media.
SDP to initiate Karamarko’s impeachment on Wednesday (Hina)
Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that this strongest opposition party would tomorrow initiate in parliament the impeachment of First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko, accusing him of putting the interest of the Hungarian energy company MOL ahead of Croatia’s interests. “We will ask in parliament that the process of Karamarko’s impeachment be initiated. This is about the political accountability of the first deputy prime minister who evidently, with his actions, is putting MOL’s interest before state interests. Karamarko, (his) HDZ (party) and MOL have the same interests when it comes to (Croatian oil company) INA. The HDZ’s coalition partners will have to say by voting in parliament if the interests of the Republic of Croatia or the interests of Karamarko and MOL are important to them,” Milanovic said on Facebook. The SDP asked for Karamarko’s resignation in parliament last week, accusing him of putting private interests before national ones because of his wife’s business dealings with MOL consultant Josip Petrovic. “We are clearly asking that… Karamarko… resign over how he has been performing his duties, over the fact that he continuously put private interest and his own pocket before the public interest. That’s why he must go and if he doesn’t, if he shows utter contempt for Croatian citizens and their interests, then the SDP group in this parliament will initiate his impeachment,” SDP MP Pedja Grbin said on that occasion. Nacional weekly recently published a contract between a company owned by Karamarko’s wife Ana Saric Karamarko and a company owned by MOL lobbyist Josip Petrovic which shows that he paid her company at least EUR 60,000 for consulting and media analysis in the period after Karamarko was elected president of the HDZ and before his coming into power early this year.
Macedonia’s Constitutional judges have different opinions but pass uniformed decision (Telegraf.mk)
Although a unanimous decision was passed, the judges of the Constitutional Court have different stances on whether the launch of the procedure on assessing the constitutionality and the legality of the Assembly’s dissolution decision was justified or not. Judge rapporteur Ismail Darlista said at the Wednesday session that the court has already examined one of the decisions that are being contested in the initiative, but pointed that the new element in the effort is the changed date of the Assembly’s dissolution decision, which was passed by the Parliament that was already dissolved when the previous decision was reviewed. The Constitutional Court did not demand a response from the Macedonian Assembly because it was already dissolved. Darlista stressed that the disputed decision is unconstitutional because it puts into question the rule of law and the legal safety. He also proposed the Constitutional Court to initiate proceedings. The president of the highest tribunal in Macedonia, Elena Goseva, said she would make a precedent and vote in favor of launching the proceedings on determining the constitutionality of the disputed decisions. At the same time, she cited the 2001 Constitutional Court decision under which the Law on Ratification the Bilateral Agreement between Macedonia and Greece Regarding the Pipeline’s Construction and Management was abolished, but the tribunal nonetheless proceeded with its work because the agreement referred to the great tangible damage inflicted to the country. The court is expected to bring the final decision on the initiative entailing the parliament’s dissolution next week. The initiative was filed by DUI lawmaker Talat Xhaferi, which, according to the constitutional judges, has completely new elements and has a new analysis prepared for this case. In February this year, the members of the court already discussed and dismissed the initiative filed by MP Pavle Trajanov, who heads the Democratic Alliance party, and the one submitted by Todor Petrov, the president of the World Macedonian Congress, both referring to the Assembly’s dissolution. Goseva, before the start of the discussion on Xhaferi’s initiative, said the entrance to the Macedonian Constitutional Court was attacked, which, according to her, shows that someone wants the tribunal to stop working, preventing it from holding sessions and introducing the reign of chaos. “This court, in the history of its work, has never seen such direct pressures, in such a large scale, exerted by a certain group of citizens, which is inadmissible for one democratic country,” Goseva said. She pointed the Constitutional Court will continue to work and will not succumb to the pressures, which are not typical for one democratic society where each protest should be held without signs of aggression.
SDSM: Constitutional Court’s judges did not decide on their own, but under pressure (Telegraf.mk)
The Social-Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) said Wednesday that the Constitutional Court’s decision to initiate a procedure over assessment of the constitutionality and legality of the Decision for the Parliament’s dissolution only created an appearance over the opening of a the path towards a solution of the political crisis. Party board member Renata Deskoska said the outcome only confirmed that the judges do not decide on their own, but under pressure. “Exactly three months ago, the Constitutional Court declared it has no jurisdiction over the constitutionality of the decision for delayed dissolution of the parliament. On Wednesday, the Court passed an entirely opposite decision and launched a procedure over assessment of the constitutionality and legality of the Decision for the parliament’s dissolution,” said Deskoska. According to her, as long as the “illegal pardons are in force” and prevent justice, the country is in political, but also constitutional crisis. “The solution to the deep political crisis is annulment of Ivanov’s shameful pardoning decision, reconvening of the parliament for the purpose of postponing the elections, as well as meeting of all conditions for fair, democratic and credible elections,” underlined Deskoska.
EU warns Macedonia elections may not meet international standards (Hina)
Elections in Macedonia scheduled for June could fail to win international recognition due to an opposition boycott, a spokeswoman for the European Union warned Tuesday. The elections are part of a broad, EU-brokered agreement to resolve a long-running political crisis between Gruevski’s VMRO and the Social Democratic Union (SDSM) opposition, who refused to acknowledge the result of snap elections two years ago. The head of Macedonia’s ruling nationalist VMRO party, Nikola Gruevski, has insisted on going ahead with early elections on 5 June, even though the country’s three other main parties have decided not to participate in the polls. The opposition accuses Gruevski and the VMRO party, which has been in power since 2006, of abusing control over Macedonia’s levers of power – police, courts, the economy and media – to ensure another electoral triumph. Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for EU Neighborhood Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn, said Tuesday that the elections should not go ahead on 5 June because several political parties had not submitted their list of candidates by the deadline. “We believe that, under the current circumstances, any government resulting from elections where three major political parties are not participating would not be a credible partner for the international community,” Kocijancic said. She also stressed the need to overhaul the voters’ list, ensure balanced media coverage and investigate issues such as voter intimidation, adding that “this has simply not been done”. Kocijancic also called upon Skopje to revoke presidential pardons granted last month to dozens of politicians, including Gruevski, implicated in corruption allegations or a wiretapping scandal affecting hundreds of thousands of Macedonians. “Justice must prevail and must be seen to prevail,” she said, noting that it was “the only way that the citizens’ trust will be restored” and would “help to end the current tensions”. Kocijancic said the EU was willing to help Macedonia – a membership candidate – to overcome its political impasse, but warned that the main responsibility lies with the parties involved. “The continuous political crisis in the country is moving the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia further away from its Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” the spokeswoman added, using the country’s formal title. Last month, efforts by the EU to broker fresh talks among the four feuding parties failed when SDSM Zaev refused to attend the meeting in Vienna unless the presidential pardons were revoked and the June elections were delayed.
Montenegro’s NATO accession protocol will be signed on Thursday (CDM)
NATO member states will sign Montenegro’s NATO accession protocol on Thursday, said the national coordinator for NATO Vesko Garcevic. He told RTCG that thereby NATO member states agreed with the fact that Montenegro should become a member of the alliance. He explained that the final stage of the accession to full membership in NATO would be opened by the signing of the protocol. Garcevic said that after signing the protocol only ratification remains to be completed, since the parliaments of NATO member states have to ratify the document according to their internal procedures. After that, Montenegro shall ratify the document, thus ending the whole process. “However, it is important to say that after the signing of the accession protocol, a country de facto entered the alliance, since it will participate in the work of NATO bodies along with other member states. There will be no secrets for it – as of Thursday afternoon when the document is signed, Montenegro will participate in all discussions,” Garcevic said. He explained that as soon as on Thursday and Friday, Montenegro is to participate in all meetings of the foreign ministers of NATO member states.
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Montenegro’s Ex-President Marovic Faces Jail for Corruption (BIRN, by Dusica Tomovic, 17 May 2016)
The ex-president of the now-defunct state of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, will serve almost four years in prison after admitting guilt in the high-profile graft case.
The former president of the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro Svetozar was released from custody on Tuesday after he signed a plea bargain with the special prosecution for organized crime and corruption and agreed to serve three years and eight months in prison, Balkan Insight reports. The sixty-one-year old Marovic had been accused of being the kingpin of a criminal group in his hometown of Budva. After five months in detention, he reportedly agreed to reveal where 15 million euros that went missing from the Budva municipality ended up in exchange for a reduced jail term. It is not yet clear when he will start serving the sentence. His lawyer Zdravko Begovic confirmed the plea bargain deal but said that the agreement with the prosecution excludes any admission that Marovic headed a criminal organization. “Marovic spent almost five months in the Spuz prison near Podgorica and Begovic said that his health had deteriorated as a result. Five months in custody, despite the very correct attitude of the prison staff, in many ways worsened his physical and mental health, and after leaving the detention unit, Marovic will be immediately visit a hospital to try to alleviate these health problems,” Begovic told reporters. Marovic has also served as Montenegro’s parliament speaker as well as president and prime minister of Serbia and Montenegro. Marovic was the first and last president of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, a loose federation created from rump Yugoslavia in 2003. It was dissolved in 2006 when Montenegrins voted in a referendum in favor of independence. Even in the early days of independence, antigovernment media in Montenegro accused Marovic, his family and associates in Budva of a range of abuses. For years, reports by the prominent local NGO MANS linked him to alleged abuses in the local government in Budva. MANS claimed on Tuesday that the plea deals concluded with Marovic and his brother were a serious indication that the special prosecutor’s office was not able to effectively conduct investigations in cases of corruption and organized crime.
