"The real terror against our Serbian people is just beginning. To my people in the north, and to all Serbs, let me just say, and to the others, I'm here, I'm back, and you know what that means, because there's no going back from here. Long live Serbia", reads the video message Milan Radoičić which he filmed in Leposavic, posted on social networks on Tuesday and which caused considerable chills among some of our fellow citizens, especially since the President of the country Aleksandar Vučić had previously announced an attack by Albanians on a Serbian village in the north of Kosovo for October 1, and the Minister of Police Aleksandar Vulin confirmed the announcement that the "Shiptari" are moving against the Serbs.
Who is the man who is linked to the murder of Oliver Ivanovic and whom Vučić takes into protection whenever the need arises?
Trucks, tanks, pumps and gravel
In February 2015, the High Court in Belgrade acquitted him of the charges Milan Radoičić and Zvonko Veselinović that they encouraged Dragan Ćurčić to, after the termination of the leasing contract, his company Euro kop keep 32 trucks of Hypo Alpe Adrija leasing and hand them over for use to Radoičić and his godfather Veselinović. At the same time, the court sentenced their partner Ćurčić to three and a half years in prison. The Appellate Court confirmed the acquittal part of the verdict, and the proceedings for Ćurčić returned to the beginning, after which he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Part of the truck from the indictment formed barricades at the administrative crossing with Kosovo in 2011.
From the first-instance verdict, which BIRN received on the basis of a request for access to information of public importance, we learn a lot of details about who Milan Radoičić and Zvonko Veselinović are, and from the testimony of numerous witnesses we can see the extent of the work they dealt with, were connected to the companies and how they organized the establishment of various companies and how they used the north of Kosovo and Kosovo as a whole to increase the value of their businesses and property.
Reading the verdict, written on 118 pages, gives us an insight into the murky world of Serbian entrepreneurship, where deals are made after a drink in a tavern on Kopaonik, where debts are settled by using other people's property, where lucrative road construction and maintenance jobs are obtained through "connections", where at the same time defended the Serbs in Kosovo, and behind that story helped in the construction of the highway in Kosovo under the administration of the Albanians...
In sum, we learn that Veselinović and Radoičić have been in business for a long time, despite the fact that today they are on the threshold of the "middle ages", that they are connected to some of the largest companies in Serbia, that their partners were seen by leasing companies and banks as VIP clients and that , in the end, it turns out that the indictment against them was a politically motivated gesture and that as such, with the change of government, it "ended up in the trash can" of the special court for organized crime, and that the godfathers got away with clean hands and image and managed in the years that followed to increase their wealth and influence.
Milan and Zvonko
Since when after murder of Oliver Ivanovic Kosovar politician Rada Trajković mentioned the name of Milan Radoičić, whom she labeled as the man who has power in Kosovska Mitrovica, this "owner of the Gray tavern where Serbian politicians meet and where everything is decided" intrigues part of the public and the media, but there is not much about him information.
Who is the man who, although he does not hold any public office, rules Mitrovica north of the Ibar, what does he do and where does he get his power from? What he did in the second half of the first decade of this century and the first years of the second decade can be partially learned from the verdict of the High Court in Belgrade, which acquitted him of charges that he encouraged Dragan Ćurčić to keep the Hippo Alpe Adrija trucks after the termination of the leasing contract. leasing.
In the first-instance, and later confirmed acquittal, which we received from the High Court, the personal data of Milan Radoičić was deleted, so it remains unknown what his occupation is. However, in his statement from January 2012, which was transmitted in the aforementioned verdict, he denied involvement in the criminal offense charged against him and said that he and Zvonko Veselinović, who is his godfather, invested "some money in trucks" and to make a living from it.
The business with trucks was described in more detail by Veselinović in his testimony before the same court. He also said that he and Radoičić were godfather, that they were very close and that they "used to transport their trucks together." He explained how they shared the work, that is, the trucks. If they had 10 trucks, four would go to Veselinović, two to his own brother Žarko, and four to Radoičić, the verdict says, but it doesn't show how they got to the trucks they shared.
Veselinović also said that Radoičić "helped him at the pump in everything, regarding debtors, debt collection, but that he had no share in it." (At the time of his testimony in court, in early 2012, Veslinović had a gas station in Rudari, near Zvečani in the north of Kosovo.)
Ćurčić also spoke about Radoičić's help with debt collection, who said in court that he did not negotiate with Radoičić about work, but that he called him a couple of times when Zvonko was angry because he did not pay back the debts, and then he would tell him that the godfather asks when he will repay the debt. He also said that Veselinović and Radoičić are always together.
And Veselinović confirmed Ćurčić's allegations, saying that Radoičić called Ćurčić only when he was angry with him, because he "lied him 100 times", so "he didn't want to talk to him for a couple of months". At the same time, he denied that Radoičić had anything to do with Ćurčić's affairs.
Defending himself in court against the fact that his trucks, which he bought in a joint venture with Veselinović, had anything to do with the defendant Dragan Ćurčić and his Euro kop, Radoičić also said in court that he had another source of income:
"His wife and mother own a boutique in Kosovska Mitrovica, from which they also generate income," Radoičić's words were quoted in the verdict of the High Court in Belgrade.
From the verdict, it can be learned that Radoičić was previously convicted, but in the copy that was delivered to us from the court, as stated, in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act, the information about when, why and what he was convicted of was crossed out. sanction pronounced. Radoičić also said at the trial that from September 2009 to February 2011 he was in custody as part of a procedure, at the end of which he was legally released, but he did not say for which charges. For the lawyers, this was the main argument for the court to dismiss the charges against Radoičić, because at the time of the commission of the criminal act, i.e. the alleged instigation of Ćurčić, he was in custody.
Barricades, arrest and trial
The process, that is, the investigation against Ćurčić and the godfathers Veselinović and Radoičić, coincided with a period of great crisis due to the barricades at the administrative crossing with Kosovo, at the end of 2011, in the installation of which Veselinović participated.
On December 2011, 24, at a time when barricades were still set up at the Jarinje and Brnjak crossing, Veselinović was detained together with his younger brother Žarko, and he was released from prison a year later, on December 2012, XNUMX, after until the change of government. The two were arrested on Kopaonik at a time when the Serbian authorities were expected to do something about the actions of the man who was supposed to be behind the blockades in the north of Kosovo. Zvonko was then detained for illegal production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and explosive materials, while Žarko, as the media reported, was detained on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position by incitement.
Later, however, only Zvonko and his godfather Milan Radoičić, as well as his partner Dragan Ćurčić, who, according to the media, served a prison sentence until 2014 as a member of the so-called customs mafia. And this Ćurčić "job" from 2006 was related to Kosovo. Namely, according to the press, with the help of the "customs mafia" he managed to smuggle mobile phone refills worth more than 100 million dinars into Kosovo. He fictitiously declared the additions to "Mega trade" from Leško in Kosmet, exported vouchers through his company Euro kop.
In the proceedings for the misuse of the Hypo Leasing truck, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime accused him of having, during April and June 2011, as a director of Euro Kop, obtained a benefit in the amount of 1,5 million dinars by giving Hipo Leasing, after the unilateral termination of the contract on 12.11.2010/32/XNUMX , did not return XNUMX trucks, but gave them for use to other legal entities without the consent of Hypo Leasing.
In his testimony before the investigating judge in January 2012, Ćurčić said that he met Veselinović in 2007, and that he started working in Kosovo in 2008. Ćurčić's company closely cooperated with the road companies owned by Milo Đurašković until his arrest in the spring of 2009.
Veselinović said in court that they knew each other superficially, from Kopaonik, that they went out drinking together. There is nothing to indicate that Veselinović had a direct share in the company Euro kop, which at that time was one of the largest companies in the field of transport because it had more than 100 large trucks in its "stock".
Dragan Ćurćić's trucks
Since 2008, Dragan Ćurćić's trucks have also been working in Kosovo and he then started buying fuel from Veselinović at the pump, a total of about 2008 liters since 300.000. He could not pay for fuel through an account, so he paid for it at the pump with cash, when he had it, which was rare because, on the one hand, as he stated, by law he could not pay through an account in Kosovo, and on the other side, his company was blocked.
He also stated that a cession was once made by the quarry paying Zvonko's pump in the name of claims he had for the services rendered to the quarry.
The first version of Ćurčić's story to the investigating judge during the investigation illustrates how one gets to those trucks that are later shared among the godfathers and brothers. Namely, according to that first statement, which he later changed, Ćurčić also said that at the beginning of 2011 he was supposed to start transporting stone from the quarry in Jarinj, but that the registration of the trucks expired at that time, and at the same time he owed Zvonko money for fuel.
Gravel and stone from that quarry were used for the construction of the Pristina - Prizren highway.
Then Zvonko proposed to him that he take over the trucks and that Ćurčić be denied 2.000 euros per truck per month in the name of the debt. Records about the debt were kept by Veselinović, said Ćurčić at the time and added that he did not keep those records.
Ćurčić also said that at the beginning of April or May 2011, he gave Zvonko 34 trucks, and that he knew that the trucks belonged to Hipo Leasing, since each truck had a traffic license that said so.
Soon, Ćurčić continued, barricades were erected in Kosovo, so he was no longer able to work. At that time, he also said that he had sold and invoiced one truck and one semi-trailer-semi-tanker to the company Tim Petrol from Kruševac, on Veselinović's order, and that in this way they had paid off part of the debt.
He also explained that 4 trucks were located on Corridor 10, near the PZP Niš quarry. Zvonko, Ćurčić said at the time, asked for those trucks as well, "so that, like the ones in Kosovo, they would pay off his debt", but Ćurčić replied that unregistered people cannot work in Serbia. Veselinović, however, said that registration is not required because the trucks will be working in a field to extract sand. Veselinović took over those trucks, according to the agreement, and transferred them somewhere near Pirot. Soon, however, there was a problem because the police stopped those trucks and wrote reports, and because of the unregistered trucks, the police also knocked on his door.
MAK from Kruševac
Then, as he said, he called Zvonko and told him that he could not work like that, that the trucks were neither registered nor his, and that he had to put them out of use. Later, in mid-2011, Veselinović transferred those trucks from Raška to Kosovo. Previously, on June 1 of the same year, he signed a lease agreement with the company MAK 037 from Kruševac at the persuasion of Zvonko Veselinović, who was supposed to collect it from MAK on behalf of the debt he owed to him. He also stated that he was not allowed to sign the lease agreement because the agreement with Hypo Leasing had already been terminated.
By the way, the company MAK 037 from Kruševac is owned by Goran Makragić, who, according to the media, was indicted in February 2013 for abuse of official position, while Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoičić were also charged with aiding in the abuse. . According to the allegations of the lawsuit, Makragić, using his official position, obtained illegal financial benefits for himself, as well as for Veselinović and Radoičić, in the amount of 26,5 million dinars, and the allegations of illegal actions relate to the work within the construction of Corridor 10.
At the hearing before the investigating judge in the investigation into the misuse of the Hippo leasing truck, Ćurčić further said that he knew Milan Radoičić, Zvonko's godfather, but that he did not know if he had anything to do with the trucks that he gave to Zvonko.
He also said that he had meetings with the representatives of Hypo Leasing and that he had to return the trucks, but that out of the 77 that were under the contract, he returned about thirty, that 18 were in the company Partizanski put, but that he was not able to return all the trucks because they were in Kosovo with Veselinović on behalf of a debt, without even being registered.
The last time, he said, he saw the trucks at the Zvonko pump in Kosovska Mitrovica, and that one truck was seized by KFOR at the barricades. He pointed out that he had been asking Zvonko to return the trucks to him in order to return them to Hipo Leasing, but that Veselinović had told him that he would return them when he paid back the debt.
Changing testimony during the trial
At the main hearing on June 17, 2013, Ćurčić's testimony took on a different tone, however. He said that the police put tremendous pressure on him, and that the target was Zvonko Veselinović, and that he was asked to tell some things about Veselinović that were not true. They also promised him that he would not be imprisoned, and that inspectors from Kruševac were coming to ask him if he was ready to change his statement, but that he did not say anything despite the pressure. Then, in contrast to his testimony before the investigating judge, he pointed out that neither Veselinović nor Radoičić persuaded him not to return the trucks to Hipo Leasing.
He also said that at that moment, 77 of the 4 trucks were not returned, that every truck was returned with a record and that they had never been on the territory of Kosovo.
During his testimony before the court, Ćurčić also said that not all 32 trucks were in Kosovo, but only 14, and that he transferred them there to transport ore from Trepča. He also said that the registration of those trucks was not necessary, given that he had agreed with Hipo Leasing to transfer them all to a new company. When that failed, he parked, as he said, the trucks at the Zvonko pump, and 2-3 trucks were transporting stone from the quarry in Jarinj.
Barricades were soon set up and since it was no longer possible to work, those trucks were mostly set up as barricades, Ćurčić said.
Released for lack of evidence
Ćurčić also slightly changed the story about meeting Veselinović. The years remained the same, he confirmed, also that he got into debt with Veselinović at the time of the first blockade of his company, but the creditor's motives were now altruistically motivated. Namely, Ćurčić said in his testimony that "Zvonko practically gave him credit, helped him, gave him fuel."
"His agreement with Zvonko was that the drivers of his trucks would fill fuel at the gas station in Rudari, for which they would receive a receipt, a delivery note at the gas station. He does not know who the pump is directed to, he knows that it is Zvonko's pump. He owed defendant Zvonko 200 euros for around 300.000 liters of fuel. The agreement was that he would pay back the debt as he could, depending on the job," the verdict reads.
He also said that he did not make an agreement with Radoičić to buy fuel, nor did he have anything to do with the pump, but that he only saw him there with Veselinović. After it was pointed out to him that in his first statement before the investigating judge he said that Veselinović and Radoičić jointly owned the Tim petrol pump in Rudari, Ćurčić said that they were godfathers, that they were always together and that he never asked if the pump was shared and repeated that he never contracted fuel deals with Radoičić, but only with Zvonka.
Ćurčić was presented with the fact that he told the investigating judge that he had given Zvonko 34 trucks and that the trucks were in Kosovo, so he could not return them to Hypo Leasing, to which he confirmed that this was true, but that they were not trucks. Hypo leasing, and then added that he did not hand over the trucks to Zvonko Veselinović, but that he only parked 32 trucks at his pump. He also said that only 4 trucks that he handed over to Veselinović were owned by Hipo Leasing.
By the verdict of the Special Department of the Higher Court for Organized Crime in Belgrade dated February 9, 2015, Dragan Ćurčić was sentenced to three and a half years of imprisonment, including the two-year prison sentence imposed in the previous court proceedings ("customs mafia", prim . aut.), while Veselinović and Radoičić were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
In the acquittal part of the verdict, it is stated, among other things, that there is no evidence that Veselinović and Radoičić knew that Hypo Leasing had unilaterally terminated the contract on 12.11.2010/XNUMX/XNUMX. with the Euro Cup.
At the end, it is stated that it is true that Ćurčić and Veselinović leased 4 trucks to the company MAK 037, but that there is no evidence that Veselinović encouraged Ćurčić to give the trucks to that company.
The court also concludes that there was no evidence that Veselinović was aware of the fact that he was helping Ćurčić in the commission of a criminal offense, and as evidence for this, he singles out part of the intercepted telephone conversation between Veselinović and Milan Radoičić held on July 11, 2011, during which Veselinović addressed I will work with the following words:
"... well brother, around these trucks, they are checking contracts, trucks, everything alive, he says brother, everything, everything, everything, everything is disputed because of Gag".
In March 2016, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade confirmed the first-instance acquittal of Zvonk Veselinović and Milan Radoičić, while the part of the verdict sentencing Dragan Ćurčić to prison was annulled and sent back to the High Court for a retrial.
In the repeated proceedings, Dragan Ćurčić signed a plea agreement with the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, based on which he was sentenced to three years in prison on June 15, 2016, including the time he spent in custody.
Companies controlled by Zvonko Veselinović
Team petrol Kruševac is a company that, according to Veselinović's admission, was founded by his driver, and which was under his control. It was founded in June 2008, and deleted on 13.4.2011. The company was fictitiously named Dalibor Mijušković.
According to the testimony in court, the company Autotransport Dača was also founded, in agreement with the same driver, and was headed by Radoslav Mijušković, and the trucks belonging to Tim Petrol Kruševac were re-registered to that company. The company was founded on June 30.6.2010, XNUMX.
The Veselinović family, also according to the testimony in court, owned a gas station in Rudari, not far from Zvečani.
The company Inkop Ćuprija belongs to Zvonko's sister Dušica Maksimović. The director of Inkop is a certain Milan Miletić.
Milan Miletić is also a representative of DOLLY BELL DOO BELGRADE-SAVSKI VENAC, which built the Dolly Bel hotel in 2015, built on land purchased from Novak Đoković.
Also, the director of the company Dolly Bell is Veselinović's wife Ljiljana Božović, and the owner of the company is Inkop. Zvonko's wife also owns the company RAMID DOO BELGRADE, registered for the construction of residential and non-residential buildings, founded in June 2016. The company built a complex of exclusive apartments in Denko's garden in Belgrade.
The company BIOORGANIKA DOO BELGRADE, registered for the same activity, which was founded in 2009 and deleted in October 2016, was also linked to it.
Granit peščar AD from Ljig is co-owned by Inkop, and the president of the Supervisory Board is Žarko Veselinović. The company Nukleus is also a co-owner, and both were awarded the job of building part of the highway on Corridor 11 without a tender, as BIRN once revealed.
Barricades and contested trucks
Zvonko Veselinović said before the investigating judge on January 14, 2012 that he believes that the police set up this procedure, but that he does not know on whose orders.
In his defense, Veselinović also talked about the barricades in the north of Kosovo during the main hearings. He said that since 1999 he was in the defense of Kosovska Mitrovica and the north of Kosovo.
"In June 2010, ROSU special units invaded the north of Kosovo and set out to occupy the border crossing, so his friends invited him to return from Budva from a family vacation," the verdict reads, and it is further stated that he returned to the north of Kosovo following the invitation, where "defended with their bodies the crossing of Šiptar special units to the north of Kosovo and Metohija".
In his testimony, Veselinović further stated that the heat had started and because of that they could not gather a sufficient number of people. As there were many crossing roads that separate the northern part from the southern part, they concluded that they had to physically secure the roads and build barricades, so in Rudari they decided how they would block the roads with trucks...".
"He made available his trucks to the crisis headquarters for the defense of the North, of which, in addition to the disputed trucks (Hippo Leasing trucks from the indictment), he had 17-18 at that time." They blocked the roads, but they lacked trucks. 40-50 trucks of various companies, companies from Novi Pazar, as well as the company Euro kop, were always parked at his pump," Veselinović's words are quoted in the verdict, adding that he ordered the workers to park those trucks wherever they needed at the crossings.
He also explained that there was a rumor among people that due to its status as a candidate for the EU, Serbia would turn its back and remove the barricades. He reported that the negotiator at the time on behalf of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, Borislav Stefanović, told him that the Government's position was to remove the barricades, but since he refused, the media chase started against him.
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