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Tycoon’s Book Revelations Spark Scandal in Serbia

April 12, 201817:16
A claim in tycoon Miroslav Miskovic’s forthcoming book that he was promised by a former Serbian president that he would not be arrested for alleged corruption has triggered a public scandal.

Miroslav Miskovic. Photo: EPA/Sasa Maricic

Serbia’s richest man, Miroslav Miskovic, claims in his forthcoming memoir ‘I, Tycoon’ that Tomislav Nikolic, who at the time was the country’s president and leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, called him to say that he wouldn’t be arrested, Nedeljnik weekly newspaper reported on Thursday.

“You can’t be arrested. There is no reason,” Nikolic allegedly told Miskovic just days before the tycoon’s arrest in December 2012, according to an excerpt from the book published by Nedeljnik ahead of its official release on Friday.

Nikolic has not responded to the claims made about him in the book so far.

According to the report, Miskovic claimed that he had good relations with Nikolic until he was marginalised by Aleksandar Vucic, who replaced him as Serbia’s president and Progressive Party leader. 

“I will never forgive him [Nikolic] for allowing them to illegally arrest me, because he knew, he had to know, that they were only arresting me because of political issues… He only showed that he is scared of Vucic,” the extract from Miskovic’s book said. 

Miskovic was arrested on December 2012 and charged with illegally earning over 30 million euros from privatised road companies as well as tax evasion.

He was arrested after the Progressive Party came to power following a general election in May 2012.

Nikolic, who led the party to the election win, stepped down from the helm of the party to take over the Serbian presidency, leaving the party to Vucic, one of whose main promises was to fight corruption.

But in September 2017, the Appeals Court freed Miroslav Miskovic, dropped the charges and annulled a first-instance sentence of five years in jail for allegedly aiding his son, Marko, in tax evasion.

The court ordered a retrial on the tax evasion charges.

Vucic criticised the ruling, accusing the court of allowing tycoons to “run” Serbia.

“Here are your tycoons, let them run your country!” Vucic told Vecernje Novosti newspaper after the verdict.

According to the Nedeljnik report, Miskovic wrote in his book that the case was “a wake-up call”.

“But for years I watched how people, not only in politics but in business also, cannot escape that trap. How can you stay normal if you hold the army, police and the security services [in your grip], if you command everyone?” Miskovic wrote. 

Although the Nedeljnik report didn’t specify who he was referring to, Vucic was the head of the Serbian Committee for Control of the Security Services between 2012 and 2017.

Miskovic wrote in the book that he was also disappointed that Serbian Patriarch Irinej “turned his back” on him. 

“He [Irinej] didn’t mention my name or [Miskovic’s company] Delta when he was thanking all the donors who contributed to building of the Saint Sava Temple,” he wrote, according to Nedeljnik

In his book, the tycoon further speculated that Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in 2003, would have been removed from office if he had not been killed. 

“The assassination of Zoran [Djindjic] in March 2003 was extremely difficult for me… Serbia did not want to understand Djindjic, it did not want to change. If he had not been killed, he would have been removed in six months,” Miskovic claimed.

Miskovic also criticised former Serbian President Boris Tadic, who was in office from 2004 to 2012, claiming that he prepared the ground for his arrest. 

“He [Tadic] was the main inspiration for stories that aimed to make big private companies weak… and presenting prominent business people to the public as the selfish rich,” he claimed.

He argued that the “populism that rules here, whoever is in power, is incompatible with the efforts to get Serbia closer to the West”.

Vucic and Tadic have also made no comment on the allegations in the book so far.

Read more:

Serbia’s Constitutional Changes Cause Storm Over Judicial Independence

Serbian President Accused of Pressuring Court Over Miskovic

Serbia Court Jails Miskovic For Five Years

Maja Zivanovic