Ex-customs chief: I admit, but I'm innocent

Belgrade, October 18 (Source: B92) - The trial of the Milošević-era head of customs directorate continued at the Special Organized Crime Court today. Mihalj Kertes, formerly a high Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) official, told the judges he is innocent in the embezzlement and abuse of office case, with an indictment charging him with robbing the state budget of over 120mn Deutch marks in the 1990's. But he at the same time admitted to almost every count of the indictment against him as he faced the trial Wednesday.

Kertes confirmed that he gave multi-million sums to Slobodan Milošević's SPS officials as well as those from the state security agency (DB) of the time. Kertes said the money was transferred without any evidence or receipts, but rationalized this for the court by saying it was done "because of the hard circumstance the country found itself in under international sanctions." "It leaked everywhere, except at the customs department," Kertes explained his claim he distributed the money "following oral orders from a coordinating body," headed by Milošević. Kertes also confirmed another high ranking SPS official, Nikola Šainović, in 1996 received 1.2mn marks "to be spent on elections" and went on to add that the party got more than 2mn in 2000.

According to the testimony the judges heard today, an SPS and DB official, Uroš Šuvaković, received another two million on October 4, 2000, a day before the collapse of the Milošević regime. Kertes even described that the cash was transported in the trunk of Šuvaković's car, where a security guard placed it. "What matters is that we did not put this money in our own pockets," Kertes said, and confirmed that the Serbian customs money was taken out to Cyprus during the 1990's, once again "on oral orders received from the government and Milošević himself."

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