Post by radovic on Sept 12, 2008 9:49:19 GMT -5
Clinton: Pull support for Serbian basketball
12 September 2008
Hillary Clinton (FoNet, archive)
Hillary Clinton wants four companies to withdraw their sponsorship of the Serbian Basketball Association (KSS).
According to daily Politika, the American senator has called on the companies to suspend funding as long as Miladin Kovaèeviæ—accused of brutally assaulting a fellow student—is allowed to play professional basketball in Serbia.
Clinton said that the companies in question were AND1, Turkish brewery Efes, Serbian Hemofarm and Italian Basicnet, owner of the Kapa brand, which have their head offices in the U.S. or do business there.
“These companies should not support the KSS until they kick Mr. Kovaèeviæ off the basketball court, so that he can be brought to justice immediately,” read a statement from the New York senator, who has been personally involved in putting pressure on Belgrade to extradite the runaway student.
Kovaèeviæ is accused of brutally assaulting a fellow student from Binghamton University in May. After spending a month in custody, he fled the U.S. using a passport issued to him by the Serbian vice-consul in New York.
American Congress and New York state officials, Clinton included, have threatened to suspend all financial aid from the U.S. to Serbia if Kovaèeviæ is not extradited to the U.S.
Kovaèeviæ, who played college basketball in Binghamton for a short while, recently signed for Serbian second division club Vrbas.
The KSS stated that Clinton’s demands were “illogical.”
“For us there were no obstacles for Miladin Kovaèeviæ to sign for Vrbas, since that Christian name and surname are very common in Serbia. Be that as it may, he is 100 percent clean as far as our regulations are concerned. If there are reasons for his extradition, the KSS has nothing to do with it,” KSS Secretary General Predrag Bojiæ said.
12 September 2008
Hillary Clinton (FoNet, archive)
Hillary Clinton wants four companies to withdraw their sponsorship of the Serbian Basketball Association (KSS).
According to daily Politika, the American senator has called on the companies to suspend funding as long as Miladin Kovaèeviæ—accused of brutally assaulting a fellow student—is allowed to play professional basketball in Serbia.
Clinton said that the companies in question were AND1, Turkish brewery Efes, Serbian Hemofarm and Italian Basicnet, owner of the Kapa brand, which have their head offices in the U.S. or do business there.
“These companies should not support the KSS until they kick Mr. Kovaèeviæ off the basketball court, so that he can be brought to justice immediately,” read a statement from the New York senator, who has been personally involved in putting pressure on Belgrade to extradite the runaway student.
Kovaèeviæ is accused of brutally assaulting a fellow student from Binghamton University in May. After spending a month in custody, he fled the U.S. using a passport issued to him by the Serbian vice-consul in New York.
American Congress and New York state officials, Clinton included, have threatened to suspend all financial aid from the U.S. to Serbia if Kovaèeviæ is not extradited to the U.S.
Kovaèeviæ, who played college basketball in Binghamton for a short while, recently signed for Serbian second division club Vrbas.
The KSS stated that Clinton’s demands were “illogical.”
“For us there were no obstacles for Miladin Kovaèeviæ to sign for Vrbas, since that Christian name and surname are very common in Serbia. Be that as it may, he is 100 percent clean as far as our regulations are concerned. If there are reasons for his extradition, the KSS has nothing to do with it,” KSS Secretary General Predrag Bojiæ said.