BELGRADE, Aug 6 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, has informed Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic she will approve possible requests by Serbian investigators to
interview persons in the tribunal's custody in connection with the sale of the Telekom Srbija company, the Serbian ministry reported Wednesday.
BELGRADE, Aug 6 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes
tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, has informed Serbian
Justice Minister Vladan Batic she will approve possible requests by
Serbian investigators to interview persons in the tribunal's
custody in connection with the sale of the Telekom Srbija company,
the Serbian ministry reported Wednesday. #L#
The ministry said in an earlier statement it had information that
the ICTY's prosecution was in possession of some 50,000 pages of
documents pertaining to financial transactions relating to the
sale of the Serbian telecommunications company.
Batic described the sale as "the largest robbery of the 20st century
in Serbia". Investigations into the affair have been initiated in
Serbia, Great Britain, Germany, Greece and Cyprus.
In 1997, the majority stock of Telekom Srbija was sold to Italian
and Greek partners and the funds were partly used by former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic to buy social peace and the survival
of his regime, according to Serbian media at the time.
After a new Serbian government came into power at the start of 2001,
it decided that Serbia should buy back the shares, so that now the
state again owns 80 percent of the company.
(hina) lml sb