In the Special Court in Belgrade, the trial of Darko Šarić and other defendants for organizing the smuggling of 5,7 tons of cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe continued with the hearing of the first defense witnesses.
Goran Nikolašević, Borivoje Pećinar and Zvonko Žunjić were interviewed and talked about business cooperation, but also some illegal activities with Nebojš Joksović, who became an associate witness of the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime in this process.
The defense lawyers tried, by questioning the witnesses, to challenge the credibility and name the witness as an associate of Joksović, while the prosecutor also had interesting questions and remarks for the witnesses.
Answering the questions of Sarić's defense attorneys, witness Nikolašević, who is Joksović's brother-in-law, said that during the status negotiations, the cooperating witness recorded conversations with the prosecutor with a recorder, claiming that he had bought him the recorder.
"I bought him that little dictaphone, later he played some conversations for me," Nikolašević said.
He also said that he wrote letters to Sarić when he became a cooperating witness, one of which he dictated to him personally.
He also said that he worked as a director in three companies of that associate witness, as well as that they were engaged in the construction and sale of apartments in Belgrade and houses in Dedinje.
Nikolašević confirmed that they sold some apartments several times, as well as that after the arrest of Joksović, they transferred the property to other persons, so that the police would not discover that it was his.
When asked by Deputy Prosecutor Saša Ilic whether he had been convicted of cocaine smuggling, Nikolašević answered in the affirmative.
"It's true, I was convicted of cocaine smuggling. It's also true that I changed my testimony, because I was previously questioned as a representative of Joksović's company, and now I'm a witness," Nikolašević said, after which the prosecutor suggested that proceedings be initiated.
Witness Borivoje Pećinar told the court how Joksović cheated him for money.
Pećinar said that at one time he made a deal regarding the sale of land on Zlatibor with Joksović, who admitted to him only after "it started to be talked about" that he was actually investing Darko Šarić's money.
To that, the deputy prosecutor asked him why Joksović didn't ask "if Bin Laden was behind the money", and Saric wanted to answer this question.
"The prosecutor asks about Bin Laden. I was Bin Laden in Serbia, even those to whom I gave property, hid that I was behind it, because where can they mention the man who wants to kill the president, Miljko (Radisavljević - prosecutor for organized crime ), and another ten people along the way," Sarić said ironically.
The trial continues tomorrow with the examination of witnesses.
After several years on the run, on March 18, 2014, Šarić surrendered to the Serbian authorities, after which he was arrested and has been in custody ever since.
He claims that he is not guilty on any of the charges and that the seized drugs are not his, so he has repeatedly accused police officers and controversial businessmen of having framed the charges against him.
Although a total of 36 members of Šarić's group were indicted in six combined indictments, there are nine other defendants in the dock of the Special Court in Belgrade besides Šarić, since 14 of them are still on the run, nine have pleaded guilty, and three have received the status of cooperating witnesses.
Besides Šarić, Nikola Dimitrijević, Željko Vujanović, Miloš Cajić, Borislav Tunjić, Nikola Dimitrijević, Živko Sibinski, Boban Stanojković, Marko Dabović and Aleksandra Mišić are also on the dock. Collaborating witnesses in this proceeding are Radan Adamović, Nebojša Joksović and Draško Vuković.
They are not exempt from prosecution, even though they are not sentenced at the end of the process, as a "reward" for their cooperation in solving crimes.
In April of last year, the unified trial of Šarić's group began in the Special Court in Belgrade on six indictments for smuggling more than a total of 5,7 tons of cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe during 2008 and 2009.
Also on the run are Rodoljub Radulović aka Miša Banana, Goran Soković, Marko Pandrc, Nenad Novaković, Boško Nedić, Darko Tošić, Darko Gazdić, Milovan Milovac, Bojan Stanojković, Petar Obradović, Marko Račić, Vladimir Račić, Mihajlo Đoković and Nebojša Sretenović.
An Interpol warrant has been issued for them.
Bonus video:
