BELGRADE, Sept 8 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb businessman Momcilo Mandic, nabbed during Operation Sabre, which Serbian police launched after Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic's assassination, was released from custody on Sunday, his lawyer
Branislav Popovac confirmed on Monday.
BELGRADE, Sept 8 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb businessman Momcilo Mandic,
nabbed during Operation Sabre, which Serbian police launched after
Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic's assassination, was released from
custody on Sunday, his lawyer Branislav Popovac confirmed on
Monday. #L#
Serbia's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the appeal of Mandic's
defence team against a new prolongation of his detention in
custody. Mandic was arrested on 13 April on suspicion of posing a
threat to the security and safety of Serbian citizens. He was also
suspected of being involved in the criminal gang led by Dusan
Spasojevic, who was killed during a police attempt to arrest him and
who was one of leading mobsters in the Zemun underground.
Mandic, however, was not covered by an indictment against 44
persons accused of Djindjic's murder.
He was taken before an investigating judge on suspicion of having
done murky banking dealings and transactions for Chinese
nationals. Mandic is believed to have enabled the Chinese to
transfer money abroad via the Belgrade branch office of a bank from
the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik.
Mandic, who was among the leading Bosnian Serb hard-line
politicians and officials during the war in Bosnia, is also
believed to be offering financial assistance for harbouring
notorious Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. The U.S.
administration has recently decided to block Mandic's assets in the
United States and bar him from entering the country.
(hina) ms