79 arrested in Serbian anti-graft dragnet
Serbian police have arrested 79 people, including a former minister, in the Balkan country's biggest ever anti-graft operation, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Saturday.
The minister said the alleged acts of corruption spanned a decade "allowing thosearrested to accumulate more than 100 million euros."
Stefanovic said the suspects included "a former minister, several top former officials, serving and former mayors and the heads of major firms", identifying the ex-minister only by the initials S.M.
The Blic daily identified him as former commerce minister Slobodan Milosavljevic.
Stefanovic said police were still hunting for five other suspects, adding: "This is the biggest operation aimed at halting corruption and financial crimes."
The announcement came two weeks after Serbia and the European Union opened the first two of the 35 stages in negotiations for Belgrade to join the bloc.
The two so-called chapters in membership talks are Chapter 35 on Belgrade's normalisation of relations with its breakaway territory of Kosovo, and Chapter 32 on financial controls.
Related Posts