Organized Crime and Serbian Soccer

The media frenzy sparked by the arrest of soccer officials and executives is dying down even though none of the cases has been prosecuted yet.

The District Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade has to prove that former Red Star Belgrade executives Dragan Dzajic, Vladimir Cvetkovic, and Milos Marinkovic embezzled millions of euros from player transfers.

In the city of Novi Sad, the prosecution of Ratko Butorovic, former chair of the board at the Vojvodina soccer club, is still in progress. He stands accused of match-fixing and bribing referees.

After his arrest, Butorovic managed to secure preliminary release although he resigned from the Vojvodina board and has not attended any games since then.

The latest arrest is that of Milovan Nikodinovic, secretary general of the Association of Members of the National Football League for over a decade.

Nikodinovic faces charges of involvement in the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburger, based in Hamburg, Germany, in 1998. It is believed that Zvezdan Terzic, then a senior official at Grubac's club, OFK Belgrade, illegally derived 1.1 million German marks from the arrangement. At one point Terzic was even president of the Serbian Football Association.

At the end of April the Belgrade District court issued a warrant for the arrest of Terzic, who has been at large for over two months.

"Terzic was notified by mail to report to the court, but the summons returned undelivered. A warrant has therefore been issued. The judge in charge of the case will determine what will happen next after the arrest operation either fails or succeeds," court spokeswoman Ivana Ramic told BETA.

Not Treated as Organized Crime

Since the crimes committed by the above men are not thought to be related, they are being tried separately in ordinary courts, not the Special Court for Organized Crime as advocated by a number of experts and a portion of the public.

Opponents of the present course of action believe the Special Court is better equipped to handle the case, and would be more successful in tracking down the money.

"For now the case is not in the Special Department (Special Court), but nobody can say whether it will stay that way. If the investigation determines that elements of organized crime do exist, the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime will no doubt react," Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime Miljko Radisavljevic told BETA.

He declined to comment on claims from the defense team of Dzajic, one of the best Serbian soccer players of the 20th century, that there is no legal basis for Dzajic to be prosecuted in the Special Court.

Serbian law states that illegal activity is considered organized crime if more than three individuals are involved.

The only soccer-related case involving three or more defendants is connected to the transfer of Goran Drulic from Red Start to Real Zaragosa in 2001, in which Dzajic, Cvetkovic, and Marinkovic are said to have accepted EUR6.1 million in kickback.

However, other conditions also need to be met. In all, eight are specified and three of the conditions must be satisfied before an organized crime investigation and trial can begin.

Dzajic and Cvetkovic are also suspected of accepting kickback in the transfer of Zoran Njegus to Atletico Madrid. However, prosecutors want the investigation expanded to include the transfer of Perica Ognjenovic to Real Madrid as well.

In addition, the two are also suspected of accepting two million euros in bribes during the transfer Nemanja Vidic to Spartak Moscow.

Dzajic's attorneys have held two news conferences to date, claiming that prosecutors mishandled the case against the former Red Start president and that in his case, there is no presumption of innocence.

"There is absolutely no legal basis to transfer this case to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, although we wouldn't be surprised if that gets added to the list of irregularities committed by the prosecutors," said attorney Milan Vujin.

"The case is rather complicated because we shouldn't be talking to the public as details of the investigation are considered a state secret while it is in progress," said lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic, who also chided the District Court for what he described as delaying the case against Dzajic, Cvetkovic, and Marinkovic.

On top of that, Dzajic's team of lawyers also claims that no evidence exists against their client and that the entire trial is just for show.

The media, on the other hand, have reported that other transfers could come under investigation, together with the arrest of soccer executives from other clubs.

So far there has been no word from the authorities on the case, which would be largely forgotten if Dzajic's attorneys were not constantly voicing allegations against officials and if the Union of Roma had not filed an appeal for his release from pre-trial detention.