Posted on 03/27/2002 6:20:41 AM PST by vooch
Serbia jails wartime Bosnian minister for 3 months
BELGRADE, March 26 (Reuters) - A Serbian court sentenced wartime Bosnian government minister Alija Delimustafic to three months in jail on Tuesday for forging personal documents, the Beta news agency reported.
Delimustafic was detained on January 17 on the basis of an international warrant, Serbian police have said. He was held and charged in Belgrade for possession of false documents.
Bosnia, which has issued an international warrant against Delimustafic over suspicions he committed financial crimes, has asked Yugoslavia for his extradition.
Presiding judge Bojana Paunovic said forging documents was a crime punishable by three months to five years. She declined the defence's request for a suspended sentence. The two months' already spent in prison will count as part of his sentence.
Delimustafic admitted he had used a forged identity document. He apologised but said he had been afraid he would be recognised as a former Bosnian police minister by someone in Serbia.
Delimustafic's lawyer Momcilo Bulatovic said the Yugoslav Justice Ministry had declined to tell him if and when his client would be extradited, saying this was confidential information.
Delimustafic was joint owner of a bankrupt Bosnian bank, which, in 2000, the U.S. Congress alleged was involved in corruption and swallowed nearly $1 million of U.S. deposits.
He was first arrested by Bosnian police in August 2000 and held in detention for six months but the Bosnian Supreme Court ordered his release in February 2001 pending trial.
Bosnia issued an arrest warrant after he failed to answer a court summons, his Sarajevo lawyer has said.
Delimustafic, a former vegetable trader and policeman who has denied the other accusations against him, became interior minister after Bosnia's first multi-party elections in 1990 and was later appointed foreign trade minister.
14:50 03-26-02
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
How possible is it that some of the $1million in US taxpayer dollars stolen by this guy ended up supporting Al-Queeda types in Bosnia ?
Quite probable, as suggested in this National Post article.
HOWEVER, one should tread carefully with Delimustafic, because he was apparently also well connected to prominent Serbian figures, as this article convincingly asserts (the article should not be discounted by reason of its source). His recent arrest in Serbia (!) should make one suspicious that things may not be quite as they seem. Delimustafic, may be used by Djindjic to denigrate his political opponents, including Kostunica, as suggested in the article.
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