Post by radovic on Nov 19, 2007 15:31:53 GMT -5
for once I hope Miskovic is right so that Ceda Narkoman goes to jail.
Delta owner accuses LDP leader of role in kidnapping
19 November 2007
Delta Holding CEO Miroslav Miškoviæ has accused Èedomir Jovanoviæ of taking part in his 2001 kidnapping.
Jovanoviæ, now the leader of the Liberal-Democrats (LDP) and a vocal critic of Miškoviæ, was then a Democratic Party (DS) official and a close aide to late Prime Minster Zoran Ðinðiæ.
This is the first time in six years that Serbia's wealthiest man has spoken about his ordeal. Members of the criminal Zemun Clan gang, also involved in the Ðinðiæ assassination and a number of other serious crimes, have officially been accused for the abduction, but a previous verdict was overturned and the case has been sent for retrial.
Miškoviæ addressed Jovanoviæ in a letter sent to Beta news agency today, entitled, "If the time is right for the truth, here it is."
"Do you use your attacks today to forestall all the testimonies about everything we know – why your hands are dirty, while your conscience is clear – or are your attacks another attempt to place me in a manhole, and for the second time demand ransom from me, my family and my company," the letter said.
"Is it true what the front pages of the newspapers are saying, that you have taken five million [Deutsche] marks from Dejan Milenkoviæ Bagzi as part of the blood money from my kidnapping. If you did take this money, who did you share it with and in what way," Miškoviæ asked Jovanoviæ in his letter, addressing the LDP leader in the second person singular throughout.
Miškoviæ was abducted on April 9, 2001, and was released the next day, after the equivalent of EUR 3mn – some 7mn marks – in ransom was paid.
Daily Kurir today published a story, based on statements of an unnamed MUP operative, that Milenkoviæ, a Zemun Gang member turned protected witness in the Ðinðiæ murder trial, gave Jovanoviæ five million marks immediately after the kidnapping, while the gang's leaders, Milorad Ulemek, a.k.a. Legija, now serving 40 years in prison, and Dušan Spasojeviæ, killed in a showdown with police shortly after Ðinðiæ's murder, took half a million each, with the rest divided among the organized crime group members.
Miškoviæ said in his letter that he was kidnapped "by a group of policemen and gangsters who carried the Miloševiæ-era State Security badges."
"From the [Kurir] article I gather that they only changed their partner in state office. Back then I did not believe the then minister of the interior, Dušan Mihajloviæ, when he swore that my kidnappers were often visited in jail by Èedomir Jovanoviæ," the letter reads.
"I rejected Mihajloviæ's estimate, which turned out to be a prophecy, that the kidnappers would soon after be set free with the help from Jovanoviæ. But to my horror, this happened."
The Delta owner says he decided not to speak about the subject when those involved in his abduction left prison, and added he never spoke even when then PM Ðinðiæ invited him for a meeting.
"I know what the prime minister told me about the kidnapping, the payment and the distribution of money. I was a witness to his bitterness at not having been able to pull a young, close associate of his away from the mafia by any means, including threats of ending the friendship and severing contacts," Miškoviæ says.
He then asks Jovanoviæ if he was in any way involved in his imprisonment as well, and whether he gave permission, direction or guarantees of immunity to the criminals, "if, as the second person of the regime, he admits to having visited the Zemun Clan and being friendly with the mafia heads."
"You have admitted to having visited the Zemun Clan leaders in prison. If you knew they were there because of my kidnapping, and 75 other felonies, why did you visit them? If you did visit them, did you influence the prosecutor and the court to release them?"
Zemun gangsters Dušan Spasojeviæ, Mile Lukoviæ, Miloš Simoviæ, Aleksandar Simoviæ, and Vladimir Milisavljeviæ were arrested in May 2001, but were released by the end of that year.
"If you set them free, were you aware that they might do the same thing to me again, or to any other man, and you know full well who I mean, who tried to confront them," Miškoviæ asks Jovanoviæ, wondering also if he influenced the fact that court proceedings into the case "simply died out", and colluded to obscure the truth and remove evidence.
"How can it be that 100,000 policemen were unable to catch two leaders of the Zemun Clan alive, even if they had to hold them under siege for a month, so that we may find out the names of their political partners, so that I may find out who was involved in my kidnapping, so that Serbia may find out who laid judgment on her prime minister."
Miškoviæ says at the end of the letter that he "paid his dues and spent all his fears."
"I have survived what few people have. I have lived to see the day when recent history can be spoken about without fear. All I ask is for everyone's guilt and responsibility to be determined in court, not by public lynching of opponents," the letter says.
"I know what it's like to be a hostage of politics and mafia, I know what it's like for myself and my company to be lynched. They can insult me, but no one will ever again kidnap me or subject me to racketeering. This is my debt to those who have refused to keep silent."
The LDP reacted to the grave accusations today on behalf of its leader by saying that Jovanoviæ will "gladly help Mr. Miškoviæ tell his truth about Èedomir Jovanoviæ, in court, after he did it in mafia media."
"At the same time we suggest that he runs in the elections, alone or as part of a coalition of war criminals, war profiteers and war politicians, all those who helped him build his company and destroy our country."
"We think he is more likely to convince citizens to live in Delta, than us to answer nonsensical questions, that he uses to underline a campaign he has been conducting for years, aimed against essential changes in the country," the LDP statement said.
"We believe Mr. Miškoviæ is aware that, unlike everything else, there is no monopoly on truth. If he forgot this in his might, we remind him that many whom he quotes today have tried this and failed, from Miloševiæ to Legija," the party statement ends.
Delta owner accuses LDP leader of role in kidnapping
19 November 2007
Delta Holding CEO Miroslav Miškoviæ has accused Èedomir Jovanoviæ of taking part in his 2001 kidnapping.
Jovanoviæ, now the leader of the Liberal-Democrats (LDP) and a vocal critic of Miškoviæ, was then a Democratic Party (DS) official and a close aide to late Prime Minster Zoran Ðinðiæ.
This is the first time in six years that Serbia's wealthiest man has spoken about his ordeal. Members of the criminal Zemun Clan gang, also involved in the Ðinðiæ assassination and a number of other serious crimes, have officially been accused for the abduction, but a previous verdict was overturned and the case has been sent for retrial.
Miškoviæ addressed Jovanoviæ in a letter sent to Beta news agency today, entitled, "If the time is right for the truth, here it is."
"Do you use your attacks today to forestall all the testimonies about everything we know – why your hands are dirty, while your conscience is clear – or are your attacks another attempt to place me in a manhole, and for the second time demand ransom from me, my family and my company," the letter said.
"Is it true what the front pages of the newspapers are saying, that you have taken five million [Deutsche] marks from Dejan Milenkoviæ Bagzi as part of the blood money from my kidnapping. If you did take this money, who did you share it with and in what way," Miškoviæ asked Jovanoviæ in his letter, addressing the LDP leader in the second person singular throughout.
Miškoviæ was abducted on April 9, 2001, and was released the next day, after the equivalent of EUR 3mn – some 7mn marks – in ransom was paid.
Daily Kurir today published a story, based on statements of an unnamed MUP operative, that Milenkoviæ, a Zemun Gang member turned protected witness in the Ðinðiæ murder trial, gave Jovanoviæ five million marks immediately after the kidnapping, while the gang's leaders, Milorad Ulemek, a.k.a. Legija, now serving 40 years in prison, and Dušan Spasojeviæ, killed in a showdown with police shortly after Ðinðiæ's murder, took half a million each, with the rest divided among the organized crime group members.
Miškoviæ said in his letter that he was kidnapped "by a group of policemen and gangsters who carried the Miloševiæ-era State Security badges."
"From the [Kurir] article I gather that they only changed their partner in state office. Back then I did not believe the then minister of the interior, Dušan Mihajloviæ, when he swore that my kidnappers were often visited in jail by Èedomir Jovanoviæ," the letter reads.
"I rejected Mihajloviæ's estimate, which turned out to be a prophecy, that the kidnappers would soon after be set free with the help from Jovanoviæ. But to my horror, this happened."
The Delta owner says he decided not to speak about the subject when those involved in his abduction left prison, and added he never spoke even when then PM Ðinðiæ invited him for a meeting.
"I know what the prime minister told me about the kidnapping, the payment and the distribution of money. I was a witness to his bitterness at not having been able to pull a young, close associate of his away from the mafia by any means, including threats of ending the friendship and severing contacts," Miškoviæ says.
He then asks Jovanoviæ if he was in any way involved in his imprisonment as well, and whether he gave permission, direction or guarantees of immunity to the criminals, "if, as the second person of the regime, he admits to having visited the Zemun Clan and being friendly with the mafia heads."
"You have admitted to having visited the Zemun Clan leaders in prison. If you knew they were there because of my kidnapping, and 75 other felonies, why did you visit them? If you did visit them, did you influence the prosecutor and the court to release them?"
Zemun gangsters Dušan Spasojeviæ, Mile Lukoviæ, Miloš Simoviæ, Aleksandar Simoviæ, and Vladimir Milisavljeviæ were arrested in May 2001, but were released by the end of that year.
"If you set them free, were you aware that they might do the same thing to me again, or to any other man, and you know full well who I mean, who tried to confront them," Miškoviæ asks Jovanoviæ, wondering also if he influenced the fact that court proceedings into the case "simply died out", and colluded to obscure the truth and remove evidence.
"How can it be that 100,000 policemen were unable to catch two leaders of the Zemun Clan alive, even if they had to hold them under siege for a month, so that we may find out the names of their political partners, so that I may find out who was involved in my kidnapping, so that Serbia may find out who laid judgment on her prime minister."
Miškoviæ says at the end of the letter that he "paid his dues and spent all his fears."
"I have survived what few people have. I have lived to see the day when recent history can be spoken about without fear. All I ask is for everyone's guilt and responsibility to be determined in court, not by public lynching of opponents," the letter says.
"I know what it's like to be a hostage of politics and mafia, I know what it's like for myself and my company to be lynched. They can insult me, but no one will ever again kidnap me or subject me to racketeering. This is my debt to those who have refused to keep silent."
The LDP reacted to the grave accusations today on behalf of its leader by saying that Jovanoviæ will "gladly help Mr. Miškoviæ tell his truth about Èedomir Jovanoviæ, in court, after he did it in mafia media."
"At the same time we suggest that he runs in the elections, alone or as part of a coalition of war criminals, war profiteers and war politicians, all those who helped him build his company and destroy our country."
"We think he is more likely to convince citizens to live in Delta, than us to answer nonsensical questions, that he uses to underline a campaign he has been conducting for years, aimed against essential changes in the country," the LDP statement said.
"We believe Mr. Miškoviæ is aware that, unlike everything else, there is no monopoly on truth. If he forgot this in his might, we remind him that many whom he quotes today have tried this and failed, from Miloševiæ to Legija," the party statement ends.