ZAGREB, July 19 (Hina) - The owner of the Croatian weekly "Nacional", Ivo Pukanic, on Thursday gave his testimony to an Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor, Giuseppe Scelsi, who in late May launched an investigation against the incumbent
Montenegrin President, Milo Djukanovic and his aides, on suspicion that they were organised in a Mafia group in order to smuggle cigarettes.
ZAGREB, July 19 (Hina) - The owner of the Croatian weekly
"Nacional", Ivo Pukanic, on Thursday gave his testimony to an
Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor, Giuseppe Scelsi, who in late May
launched an investigation against the incumbent Montenegrin
President, Milo Djukanovic and his aides, on suspicion that they
were organised in a Mafia group in order to smuggle cigarettes. #L#
"Scelsi called me for talks, as the investigation against
Djukanovic and his aides is based also on some articles issued in
"Nacional", which has been writing about the Balkan Tobacco Mafia
since May 2001," Pukanic told Hina on Friday.
Pukanic and the prosecutor held the seven-hour-long talks at a
secret site near Bari, and the Croatian journalist assumed the
obligation not to reveal details from that conversation.
Pukanic, however, claimed that the Italian prosecutors had
"entered very deeply" the topic of their probe.
According to Pukanic, Djukanovic's group, which is suspected also
of money laundering and tax evasion, includes Stanko Subotic Cane
whom the Croatian weekly "Nacional" describes as a boss in the
European tobacco Mafia.
The probe against Djukanovic was instigated in the Italian port of
Bari at the end of May 2002, and he is suspected of crimes he
allegedly committed between the mid-1990s and the late 2000.
According to foreign media, there are statements of repenters who
accuse Djukanovic and his aides of the above-said crimes.
Montenegrin President Djukanovic on Thursday said he had no
connections with the Italian tobacco Mafia of which he was accused
by Italian judicial bodies.
Djukanovic said in an interview with Slovenian daily "Delo" that he
had never had any links with the tobacco Mafia and that an European
commission of enquiry also established his innocence.
"During the sanctions (imposed on Yugoslavia) a legal transit of
cigarettes passed through Montenegro, and we knew of it, and this
was checked by one European commission," the Montenegrin head of
state said.
(hina) ms