During Operation Saber, the government and the opposition repeatedly threw the question "Who released Dušan Spasojević from custody?" as a scandalous and compromising hot potato. The question was garnished with accompanying inevitable questions: yes, who all went to Schillerova (more of them than is usually thought), and who went to CZ and why; that who snooped with Duca, who with Chumet, who with the "red berets", and who with all of them together; who played pranks on whom and spread misinformation, who was successful and who was not, etc. All these questions will get their answers sooner or later, when the facts are established (and that will take time), so we will have fun with what we could find out so far from reliable witnesses from the police, prosecutor's offices and courts.
The story begins in May 2001: Duća (Spasojević), Kum (Mile Luković), the Simović brothers (Miloš and Aleksandar) and Vlada Budala (Milisavljević) are arrested in Paris for possessing forged passports of the FR Yugoslavia. Duća is already a very powerful and dangerous man: he got a connection with the Legion and the State Security even earlier; he acquired seed capital in joint ventures to kidnap rich people using JSO resources, primarily intelligence; they will rely on humans soon. Duća's team headed to Bogotá, Colombia; certainly not for touristic reasons. It seems that they stayed in Paris for a while (that's where the famous photos from Paris parties, published during the Saber action, could be from). It also seems, say the police, that the security authorities in Serbia and France (including the French office of the US DEA) were aware of the purpose of that trip and that the intention was to escort them to Bogotá, to meet them there and to establish connections and jobs, so that they can be picked up on the way back - if there is luck with the goods; if not - to wait for the appearance of the cocaine from the Colombian connection and to obtain information on how and through whom it arrived. At least that's what police sources said in May: that this was the agreement of our, French and American agencies.
The whole plan fails when Minister Dušan Mihajlović starts promising to resign at that moment "if the kidnappers of Mišković from Delta are not revealed in thirty days"; the police already suspect Duća and his team of the kidnapping, so a political crisis arises: the democratic government in Serbia will collapse if the kidnapping is not clarified. At our request, the French police then literally take Duca and the team out of the plane to Bogota, where they were already sitting, and the extradition procedure begins on charges of falsified passports. By the way: the documents were highly forged and may have come from State Security resources; the French visas were genuine.
COLOMBIAN DANGUBA: Duca is furious: "You deprived this country of foreign exchange income, millions of euros!" We would export the coca from Colombia to the West, and the money would come here," he tells the police. Well, now: the policy of prosecuting forged passports was lax; it is a municipal jurisdiction anyway and the penalties are mostly mild. The problem of detention arose, precisely for these reasons, because of the small threat of punishment. District Public Prosecutor Rade Terzić insists that the detention be extended due to the investigation into the kidnappings of Mišković (Delta), Aleksić (Interspeed, Subotica) and Vuković from Novi Sad (petrol station owner), on which the police are working feverishly, but there is no complete evidence yet.
At the end of May, however, Rade Terzić began to insist that Duća and the team be released from custody because "there is no evidence". At the meeting in the MUP, the police report: the witnesses were frightened; in Schillerova, they found a room in which the plastic cover of the electric outlet had traces of the blood of a man who was shot in the knee while they were holding him (he has since escaped into the world); the surveillance cameras at the toll plaza recorded the cars that the kidnappers used to go to Subotica and back, without paying the toll; Vuković was tipped by Nenad Opačić, but the one who tipped Aleksić was wrong, because he was not the owner of the company "Interspid", but only a manager who got rich, but not as much as Duća had hoped; the VW Passat owned by Slavko Stevanović Šumski was used in the abduction; traces of Vuković's blood and the phone of one of the Simović brothers were found in the car; Šumski claims that he lent the car to the Simovićs; then someone kidnaps Šumski and beats him, so he won't talk anymore, he says that what he said - he said under pressure; he is convinced that he was abducted and beaten by the police and in general the whole thing is very similar to the case of Limar (Dragan Ilić from the case of the murder of Boško Buha).
In May 2001, Rade Terzić, Siniša Simić (then district and later republican prosecutor) and Goran Ilić (municipal public prosecutor of the First OJT) joined the police. They say that there is no evidence for the kidnappings, and that Duća promises to reveal the perpetrators of those kidnappings if he is released. During June, a bail of 300.000 marks was offered for the release of Duca and his crew from custody in the case of forged passports; Rade Terzić asked that the bail be accepted. In the repeated request, Đorđe Mirković, the president of the Fourth Municipal Court, refuses bail; and so on several times, so the detention remains. Duca's business has been paralyzed, and his closest collaborators are with him in the Central Prison; it cannot be done that way, and time is running out, which is of critical importance, because the police are also doing their job. Time dynamics are now crucial and Duća is getting annoyed, he gets all the funds through a lawyer and receives various visits in prison.
Mile Luković Kum and Dušan Spasojević Duća
RESCUE DETENTION: By then, the case of forged passports is already in the indictment phase, which should go to the judge of the Fourth Municipal Court, Željko Šćepanović. The case, however, is assigned to another judge, Pančevski (a member of the SPS). The trial was scheduled for July 17, but for some reason, which should be clarified in the meantime, it was postponed to July 13. This is important because the police are working feverishly to collect evidence and every day is precious to them. Again and again, a criminal complaint is filed for kidnapping and for one case of extortion, in order to obtain an extension of detention on that basis at the trial. The trial for forged passports drags on until the early afternoon of July 13 and the matter becomes dramatic: judge Pancevski is already starting to ask the defendants if they will properly respond to future summonses; it is obvious that they will abolish detention. The Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Fourth Municipal Court, Mioljub Vitorović, runs to the investigative judge Milan Londrović, who received the kidnapping case, and explains the situation: either he will order detention immediately, or he will go to the Central Prison and wait for these five to come to pay off their debt, then interrogate them there and order detention. They decide on the second variant and go to CZ. Judge Pancevski canceled the detention and the five returned to CZ to collect their belongings, but an investigating judge was waiting for them there; their lawyer Boban Milivojević immediately calls Rade Terzić.
Duća is very angry: "Do you know what you are doing?", he asks prosecutor Vitorović. Vitorović offers a settlement: let Duća tell who the perpetrators of those kidnappings are, when he already claims to know, and we'll move on easily. "Then I'm a dead man," says Duća. "In that case, you are at least safe in detention," says Vitorović. Duća: "But don't keep me longer than necessary." Then detention was ordered in the kidnapping case, and they were convicted for forged passports and a gun found in the car.
In the investigation of the kidnappings, the police fell off their feet comparing computer lists of contacts of persons from both mobile phone networks. In the final report, however, Neša Opačić and Bagzi (Dejan Milenković) fail: Neša is not given "from above"; they don't give Bagzi, because he is "Chumet's chauffeur"; it seems that there was a question of some police settlements and politics; it is not excluded that Chume is already in negotiations with the police. Then they learn that Marko Petrović Mamica was killed and buried on Duća's order, under the suspicion that he was lying to the police. The family was told that he was hiding, they even sent some money from abroad, and Slobodan Pažin called himself from his mother's phone to show that he was alive.
At the beginning of August 2001 (August 8), the detention of the five should be extended for kidnapping and extortion. The Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Fourth Municipal Court, Dušan Simić, looked at the case a lot; Rade Terzić is conspicuously very interested. Investigating judge Londrović and prosecutor Vitorović request an extension of custody; Dušan Simić protests because "there is no evidence, and I am a public prosecutor." However, the detention is being extended. Nervousness is growing. From the statements published so far in the investigation into the assassination of Đinđić, we learn the details: Duća thought of accusing Mamica (whom he already had killed), Nikola Bajić (who owes him his life, because he didn't kill him when he should have) for the kidnappings, so now he can so much to repay him) and some unidentified Bosnians "from Karadzic's security" whose names his comrade Legija will already find for him, and they are certainly unavailable. The plan will start to be implemented later, when Duca is released from custody.
During July, August and September 2001, Surčinci and Duća's lawyer Boban Milivojević (about whom much will be learned later) run around and bring in various witnesses on the topic of kidnappings who will "shed light" on Duća. Aleksić (kidnapping victim in Subotica) is nervous; the family received threatening calls and recorded them: the voice of Kum Luković was identified by forensics. "How did you find Kumo's voice on the phone?" "Well," says Mile Novaković, "while the policeman in CZ was talking to Kumo, a problem arose"; the policeman calls Mile and tells Kum: "After all, here's your phone, so let Mile explain...", so the police recorded Kum's voice over the phone. The famous "hair for DNA analysis" in the case of the Mišković kidnapping does not exist nor has it ever existed. There is only the cap that Miskovic kept while being thrown out of the car when he was released. Besides, the first thing Miskovic did when he got to the house was to wash his shoes - to the horror of the investigation.
In September, the detention should be extended, again. The woman, a witness in the case of extortion, suddenly changes her testimony and does not accuse Duća. Duca was released from custody on September 7, 2001. A few days later, another extortion case comes from the District Public Prosecutor's Office: Spasojević, Luković, Krsmanović, Jurišić and Nikola Bajić. It turned out to be a construction contractor who built houses for Surčinci; Duca paid for everything. They remained indebted to the man, so they beat him when he asked for money. The case was led by the current first deputy of the District Public Prosecutor Dušan Lončarević (who was on duty with investigative judge Goran Čavlin when Duća and Kum were killed in Barajevo during Sable); until July 3, Bajić was in custody, and Krsmanović and Jurišić were on the run. Lončarević takes the case into consideration and suggests that Bajić be released from custody, which the investigating judge does. The object remains at rest, but not Duća.
PATRIOTIC GAMES: In his testimony in the investigation, Miladin Suvajdžić, aka Đura Mutavi, gives details of Duća's plan to free his accomplices: in agreement with police inspector Slobodan Pažin, who will inform Minister Mihajlović's office about the "progress" of Duća's private investigation, Duća refers to Mamica, Nikola Bajić and and some Bosnians close to Radovan Karadžić as kidnappers; allegedly, the money was intended for Karadzic, which Duća assessed as just enough "patriotic" dilution of things. The Legion, however, has a change of heart about this; Đura Mutavi says that "someone hitchhiked it, I don't know who" and that plan falls through. Now we need to somehow get the Godfather, Simović and the Fool out of custody...
Soon, Duća arrives at Vitorović's, accompanied by two pistons with "motorolas", very similar to officials. In a tense and unpleasant conversation, Duća makes twisted threats: he mentions Vitorović's family and child; Vitorović informs him that he knows where his daughter Dućina plays tennis and what now? Duća mentions Čeda (Jovanović), as if from afar; in short, Duća demands that Kum Luković be released. Vitorović refuses; Duća, with some respect, says: "You are the only one who refused" and leaves. According to Đura Mutavo, Duća then begins to "give gas" to the Legion and "brainwash" it: the government needs to see their power (the power of the JSO, that is); and our people should be placed at the head of State Security; and our people are sitting in detention and they need to show the Government and Djindjic who has the power and who is a true patriot; etc. Duća, therefore, "fired the Legion" with a combination of flattery and "patriotic" rhetoric, all of which did not get his comrades out of custody. The legion, already deposed and retired, does not need much; he controls the Special Operations Unit anyway: their belief is that he was only "formally" removed. After two discreet visits by Milorad Ulemek Luković Legion to the JSO center in Kula, the rebellion is ready; we are just waiting for an occasion. The occasion - intentionally or accidentally - was provided by the person who had the idea to send the JSO to arrest the Banović brothers in Obrenovac (according to the indictment of the Hague Tribunal), although there was no tactical or other need for it: the Banovićs, the grocers in the market, could have been arrested OUP Obrenovac without any problems. But, for some reason that Serbia needs to explain one day, the famous "red berets" were used, which led to unforeseen (or anticipated?) consequences.
ZNA SAMO RAD TERZIĆ: On November 2001, 12, there was an armed rebellion by the Special Operations Unit of the State Security Department of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia. On the day when they blocked the highway near the "Sava" Center, on November 12, Rade Terzić came to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Fourth Municipal Court, turned on the television and said: "Look. Do you see what is being done? The first request of the JSO is to release the 'Frenchmen' (the Godfather, the Simović brothers and Vlada Budala) from custody. The kidnappers used the money from the ransom to finance those who guard the Hague indictees for large sums of money." Rade Terzić obviously knows something that no one else knows at that moment - not even the Cabinet of the Minister of Internal Affairs. His request to lift the detention of Kum and the others was refused and he leaves, very angry. It was Monday, November 2001, 16; on Friday, November XNUMX, Rade Terzić sends a mandatory instruction (order) to release Mile Kum Luković from custody. Biljana Radovanović, Municipal Public Prosecutor of the Fourth Municipal Court, acts according to the instructions, because she cannot do otherwise. Later, a high-ranking prosecutor would say that "he had never seen a more stupid mandatory instruction in his career." Investigating judge Londrović suggests that everyone be released then - when that's the case, but the president of the court, Mirković, releases only Kuma and keeps the brothers Simović and Budala in custody. It should also be taken into account that the threatened punishment for kidnapping was less than for extortion; it is a consequence of the previous multi-year widespread practice of racketeering; there were few kidnappings for blackmail, while Duća and Legija made an industry out of kidnapping rich people that brought in millions of euros. According to Đura Mutavo, the JSO's armed rebellion did not fulfill all Duća's ambitions, because Legija was satisfied with the fact that he installed Bracanović as the deputy head of State Security. Never during the JSO rebellion did anyone mention the release of Kum, the Simović brothers and Budala as one of the demands of the "red berets"; no one, except for Rade Terzić, who released the Godfather himself - in the end, when nothing else worked...
In December 2001, Mioljub Vitorović filed an indictment for the kidnappings of Mišković, Aleksić and Vujović, requesting at the same time that the MUP continue collecting data from a number of persons on the submitted list. Simovići and Budala were released from custody after the indictment was filed, because the deadlines had expired. The trial starts, everyone comes regularly to the hearings - except for the injured parties and prosecution witnesses; a reasonable assumption is that they are intimidated. The whole neighborhood around the court is blocked by black jeeps and drivers with "motorolas" and dark glasses; the courtroom is full of such people, but the police do not act; it seems to have been considered normal.
ACCELERATION: Until February 2003, more or less nothing happens in this matter. In February, an important meeting is scheduled in Makis, at the headquarters of UBPOK (Administration for the fight against organized crime). There are Mile Novaković from the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia, Boro Banjac (UBPOK), prosecutor Vitorović and another man; Milan Obradović (GSUP Belgrade) is late and will join soon. This happens two days after Chumet's first statements and letters were published in the press. Ljilja Buha has already been to Nebojša Maraš (deputy district public prosecutor) to give a statement; the fuss about Chumet grows rapidly, because he does not appear in the media with his statements, interviews and letters. Opinions and data are exchanged; there is a great and dramatic change in the air. Banjac says: we were with Prime Minister Đinđić and we have support - to the end! Nebojša Maraš and Veselin Mrdak (both from the District Prosecutor's Office) were there the next day for a similar meeting. It seems that the participants of those meetings were carefully selected.
February 22 comes and the incident at the Limes hall. That's where the newly elected deputy district public prosecutor, Aco Stojov, who was sent by God to manage pre-criminal proceedings in the police, enters the scene. "The report against Bagzi is nothing," says Stojov confidently, and those present - Pažin, Možgon and some others - agree completely. Bagzi is reported for forgery, an offense under municipal jurisdiction (threatened sentence: up to three years), and the investigating judge on duty assigns him only a possible eight days of detention, and because of the disputed documents for the truck he used to try to stop the column in which Đinđić was; if they suspected him of attempted murder - and they could coldly - he would have been detained for a month, no problem, and the whole subsequent story would have looked different... Such papers arrive at the Fourth Municipal Court: the extrajudicial criminal panel has nowhere to go but the filed papers and Bugsy gets out from custody after four days. Even from Đinđić's security, nothing came on the subject of Bagzi and the incident at the Limes hall, although they too could file a report for attempted murder and get a month's detention - automatically.
Things suddenly begin to thicken in early March 2003. At that time, after the explosions at Defense, all the accused in the kidnapping trial and their crew are overjoyed, grinning from ear to ear and openly rejoicing. Something is hanging in the air, you can feel it. A meeting is scheduled at the MUP, in Kneza Miloša Street. Mile Novaković, Jovan Prijić, special prosecutor and a deputy municipal prosecutor, who are involved in the whole case, will meet. Prijić is an optimist: "Are we going to sort them all out?" The municipal prosecutor suggests: Ljubiša Buha Čume should give a proper statement according to the CPC, and then go to the media with the data and slowly form public opinion. The following day, Chumet's letters in the newspapers stop. At that time, Chume was already packed and ready for a cooperating witness and was in the hands of the police.
VELIKO FINAL: At the same time, according to Đura Mutavi (who heard it from Kum Luković), more precisely on March 1, 2003, Legija learned from Zvezdan Jovanović Zveki that a relative of Zveki's from the Security Directorate of the General Staff had heard that Legija would be arrested on March 15, 2003 On March 1, the legion leaves its apartment in Filmski grad, where it was secured by JSO, and moves to the "stek", an apartment in the Youth Brigade. 8 and becomes an illegal; it is not yet clear which of the JSOs remains to provide it; the information is contradictory.
Jovan Prijić then travels somewhere to listen to Chumet. Three days later, on Monday, March 10, he returns with Chumet's preliminary statement. He says that Chume agreed to be blamed, but only as an enabler, "logistical support". He mentions the famous counting of money (Cume was the only one who had a machine) in his office, money from the kidnapping of Mišković; "The legion took three and a half million," says Chume. For Thursday, March 13, 2003, Chumet's hearing under the CPC, in the presence of the defense attorney and the prosecutor, and the arrest of Zemunac on the same day, Thursday evening, are arranged. "Legija can't!" says Jovan Prijić.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, Legion calls Jovan Prijić and wants the two of them to meet on that day. They did not meet; Prijić did not agree.
On Tuesday, March 11, Jovan Prijić says: "On Thursday, March 13, let's arrest Duca and everyone else!"
In the night between Monday (March 11) and Tuesday (March 12), Zoran Đinđić "lined up" the republican prosecutor Siniša Simić and the district prosecutor for Belgrade Radet Terzić and threatened to arrest them if action was not immediately taken against the Zemun clan .
On March 12, Zoran Đinđić was killed in front of the Serbian Government building.
Duća Spasojević and Mile Luković Kum die in Barajevo in a conflict with the police, under circumstances that are not clear enough.
Bugsy and Legija are still on the run, although the police were rumored to be on Bugsy's trail all the way to Barajevo. The Simovići brothers and Vlada Budala (from the original team of kidnappers) are also on the run.
When he became the republic's public prosecutor, Đorđe Ostojić familiarized himself with the papers, called Rade Terzić to him and demanded his resignation. Rade Terzić refuses at first, but Ostojić confronts him with sad facts; Terzić suggests that he go to the District Prosecutor's Office and write his resignation there; Ostojić tells him that there is no need, because the typist is there, behind the door. Witnesses say that Terzić's hands were shaking so much that he could hear the sound of paper as he resigned. The general assessment is that Terzić barely escaped prosecution.
All the other judicial persons in this drama are still where they were, except for Dušan Simić (dismissed) and Siniša Simić, the former republican prosecutor, who left more due to command responsibility, formation, than due to any fault of his own; he is - according to all testimonies - an honest and professional man; because of those qualities, Đorđe Ostojić even asked for Siniša Simić to remain as the deputy public prosecutor, but he was not granted.
P.S. The trial for the kidnappings of Mišković, Aleksić and Vujović ended at the beginning of April 2003. All but Legija were on the indictment, and Slavko Stevanović Šumski was also added. An important witness of the accusation of extortion, the wife of the entrepreneur who was beaten because they owed him money, gave up her initial statement: "You are not able to protect me." The entrepreneur himself was arrested during the Saber operation by the police in Zemun for possessing an automatic rifle. What does he need a gun for? The entrepreneur says: "When I asked who would protect me from Duca and his crew, the police inspector told me to buy a rifle and protect myself."
An illustration of Duca's character and power came in early 2003 from a drug addict from Zemun, who was arrested for throwing a hand grenade into the office of Chumet's lawyer, Stevan Protić. "Duca told me to come to a corner." They came in a car, gave me a bomb, told me to pull the fuse and throw the bomb in the window, then they left. That's what I did." When asked if he was aware that there could have been people in the office and that someone could have been hurt, the drug addict says that it didn't matter. Why? "Because when Duća says something, he doesn't ask anything anymore." One of them asked, "And what about me?", so Duća put him in the car and took him to Schillerova; there he broke his fingers and toes in the mengels, in front of a large group of associates of the Zemun clan. The message was clear.
