Tobacco.org

• Tobacco Mafia, assassinations cases take new turn? 

Serbia's public prosecutor has provided two key witnesses in the investigation of the so-called Tobacco Mafia, a Belgrade daily reports.

Blic newspaper writes today that the first witness is going to present new evidence against Stanko Subotić, aka Cane, who is accused of cigarette smuggling.

The other should provide information which would lead to the persons responsible for ordering and executing the murders of MUP Gen. Radovan Stojičić Badža and Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Pavle Bulatović.

The key witness was provided by means of international cooperation in the region and should give the prosecutor's office solid evidence, which would incriminate Subotić as a cigarette smuggler, according to this article.

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• Serbia takes aim at smoking 

Srmena Krstev, president of Serbia's Commission for the Prevention of Smoking, told the Southeast European Times the age at which they begin is dropping constantly. "About 8% of teenagers, ages 13 to 15, periodically light up a cigarette. A third of them had their first cigarette at the age of ten," she said.

In some countries, such as Greece and Turkey, nearly half the men smoke. However, the percentage of women who light up in those countries is much lower than in Serbia. "Serbia's only 'rival' in the number of smokers among European countries is Bosnia and Herzegovina," she said.

To address the growing health problems posed by smoking, the health ministry has proposed existing amendments to the law prohibiting smoking in enclosed spaces.

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• Restaurants want to hang on to smoke 

While in many European countries smoking in public places has been banned altogether, in Serbia, even the current law is not entirely respected.

Now the restaurant owners say they wish to see "more moderate legislation" enforced.

A new bill could by the end of this year outlaw tobacco smoke in cafes and restaurants in a country where one third of the adult population enjoys the nicotine.

The law would then allow them this pleasure only in their own homes, and in the streets.

While Serbians react with mixed opinions, the restaurant industry is about to launch an initiative they have dubbed, "Protection instead of prohibition".

They suggest that Serbia adopts the so-called Spanish-Portuguese model, where the owner of a restaurant sized up to 100 sq meters could independently decide whether the space is banned for smoking, while larger ones would have separated smoking and non-smoking areas.

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• Serbia marks No Smoking Day 

Serbia today marks National No Smoking Day, as new anti-smoking restrictions loom.

As part a campaign which, for the first half of the year, is running under the slogan, "Tobacco Smoke is a Serial Killer," and in the second "Throw out Tobacco Smoke", a gradual introduction of no-smoking laws in restaurants and cafes in Serbia has been announced. . . .

So-called passive smoking, which is indirectly inhaled, is officially classified as a known carcinogen, which can cause cancer, most often of the lungs, as well as often fatal, acute and chronic heart conditions and strokes.

According to a study on diseases and injuries in Serbia, in 2000, 10,187 people died due to the consequences of smoking, which is 9.8 percent of the total number of deaths, and rconstitutes a 13.7 percent loss of years of life.

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• Murdered Croatia Journalist Pukanic Was Key Witness on Balkan Tobacco Mafia 

The Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic, who was murdered in Zagreb on October 23, had been one of the main witnesses in a Balkan cigarette contraband investigation of the police in the Italian city of Bari, the Italian Prosecutor Guiseppe Scelsi announced as quoted by the Trieste newspaper Il Piccolo.

Scelsi expressed the alarm of the Italian prosecution over the assassination of the owner of the Croatian newspaper Nacional, who was also its Editor-in-Chief, because it was going to affect the investigation against the Balkan cigarette smuggling mafia.

The Prosecutor also pointed out that another journalist who was also a witness in the tobacco contraband case - the Editor-in-Chief of Montenegro's Dan Daily Dusko Jovanovic - had been murdered in Podgorica on May 27, 2004.

According to Scelsi, the current Prime Minister and former President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic had also been investigated as potentially involved in the Balkan cigarette smuggling ring but the investigation against him would be terminated because of his diplomatic immunity.

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• Smoking still thrives in Balkans, but for how long?  

Croatia -- where almost 13,000 people, the size of a small town -- die of smoking each year, became the first to take more concrete steps on Friday, when parliament passed a tough new anti-smoking bill.

The law banning cigarettes from all public places takes effect almost immediately, a move certain to displease almost one third of the European Union candidate country's 4.4 million people who smoke. Only cafe and restaurant owners will have a six-month transition period.

The law also restricts any smoking-related media campaigns.

"We want to do something for our health and catch up with European standards," Health Minister Darko Milinovic told parliament when presenting the bill this month. . . .

So, the ban is likely to improve quality of life here, but will almost certainly impact cafe owners, who depend very much on smoking clientele, but face a fine of up to 150,000 kuna ($28,180) if found in violation. . . .

Neighboring Serbia nominally banned smoking in public places in 1995 but the law has never been implemented and smokers can be seen everywhere in its sprawling capital Belgrade.

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• Kertes enters plea in Tobacco Mafia trial 

The trial of an organized cigarette smuggling group continued today at the Special Organized Crime Court in Belgrade.

The members of the network, allegedly led by Stanko Subotić, are charged for having illegally imported cigarettes to Serbia during the 1990s.

There has been no official explanation yet regarding the Russian authorities’ recent rejection of a request to extradite Subotić, held in Moscow since April and released last week, the Ministry of Justice said today. . . .

The trial continued this morning with former Milošević-era Federal Customs chief Mihalj Kertes entering his plea.

Kertes rejected all charges against him and said that "the only correct thing in the entire indictment" was his name.

"The indictment says that I let trucks [loaded with cigarettes] through for three gangs, but it doesn’t say that I took my share. That’s impossible. Why would I allow the trucks to enter the country and not take my share? The prosecutor is trying to make me look like an imbecile . . .

Kertes was indicted for his alleged membership in a criminal gang led by Mirjana Marković, and Marko Milošević – the wife and son of Slobodan Milošević. . . .

The former customs chief also repeated the defense he used at his other trials, saying that "his end began" after he was appointed to the job, and after he managed to suppress smuggling and increase the customs revenues mulitfold in 1994.

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• PM's testimony on smuggling and mafia links 'shameful' say opposition leaders 

The testimony by Montenegro's prime minister Milo Djukanovic (photo) on cigarette smuggling before Italian prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari was a shame for the country, opposition leaders said on Monday.

Djukanovic, who has been considered the absolute political leader of Montenegro for the past eighteen years, surprisingly appeared before Bari prosecutors last Friday, answering their questions for more than six hours. . . .

Djukanovic is being investigated for a multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation to Italy and for offering free access and shelter to Italian mafia members in Montenegro ports between 1994 and 2002.

He has repeatedly denied the charges and the rumours that he was being investigated. . . .

Nebojsa Medojevic, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for Changes, said Djukanovic had shamed Montenegro by refusing to answer all of the 80 questions put by Bari prosecutors, invoking diplomatic immunity.

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• Charges brought against Tobacco Mafia 

The Special Prosecution has announced that it has launched proceedings against the so-called Tobacco Mafia.

The prosecution has pressed charges relating to abuse of authority and cigarette smuggling against nine suspects - Siniša Stoj?i?, Dejan Milenovi?, Mihajl Kertes, Petar Milenkovi?, Nebojša Nikoli?, Stojan Miši?, Radisav Gvozdenovi?, Nenad Živadinovi? and Zdravko Hristov.

The inquiry determined that evidence existed that the group, whose ringleaders were Stoj?i? and his brother Radovan who was killed in 1997, by using the business structure of the R5 company in Niš owned by Siniša, and with the assistance of Customs officials and staff, allowed lorries carrying undeclared cigarettes to pass through the frontier unhindered.

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• No one spared in cigarette smuggling case 

BELGRADE -- Special Prosecutor Slobodan Radovanović said that no one will be spared in the cigarette smuggling investigation.

Everyone who was involved and who people claim was involved in smuggling tobacco will be investigated, including Delta Holding owner Miroslav Mišković, Radovanović said.

“If there is evidence against Mišković, he will be included in the action. I repeat, only if there is evidence. Everyone is being questioned, I did not leave anyone out, but I cannot announce investigations,” Radovanović told Danas.

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• Milosevic's widow and son to be charged with cigarette smuggling  

Slobodan Milosevic's widow and their son face charges of organizing a cigarette smuggling gang in the 1990s, Serbia's public prosecutor said Monday.

Special public prosecutor for organized crime, Slobodan Radovanovic, said the state prosecution office would demand the freezing of all bank accounts and property belonging to the two in Serbia.

Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, and his son Marko have lived in a self-imposed exile in Russia for the past several years. Radovanovic indicated that an international arrest warrant would be issued for the two.

Another 15 people, some members of Milosevic's regime in the 1990s, were arrested earlier this month on similar charges.

The indictment against them alleges that they transferred millions of dollars to dozens of off shore accounts during U.N. sanctions in the 1990's, after making enormous tax-free profits on the illicit cigarette trade.

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• Future of Serbia's tobacco industry 

Serbia will keep its obligations to the tobacco industry, regardless of CEFTA provisions, Milan Parivodiæ says.

International economic relations Minister Milan Parivodiæ discussed with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in Brussels the issue of tobacco industry development in Serbia in light of the signing of the regional free trade agreement CEFTA.

The problem with the tobacco industry began in the wake of signing of the CEFTA agreement, which obliged Serbia to annul the difference in excise duties that levied higher taxes for imported cigarettes. The mentioned difference served to protect domestic tobacco industry. Following the privatization of tobacco plants in Niš and Vranje, the state vowed to keep the excise margin by 2009.

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• Suicide-smoker campaign aims to wean Serbs off weed 

Serbia has launched a nationwide media blitz equating smoking with suicide bombing, in its biggest campaign yet to persuade almost four million people in this cigarette-loving stronghold to quit the weed.

Huge billboard pictures show a man strapped with a vest of oversized cigarettes that look like sticks of dynamite, under the slogan "One Smoker, Many Victims".

Every second man and every third woman in Serbia gets through a pack of cigarettes daily, on average, sending a national total of 1.4 billion packs up in smoke per year.

"Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in Serbia, and from our surveys we found that almost all victims were smokers," said Tanja Knezevic, director of Serbia's Institute of Public Health, which leads the campaign.

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• Tobacco Production in Serbia in 2006 Decreases by One Third ($$) 

The Tobacco Group at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce has announced that the tobacco production in Serbia in 2006 is about 30 per cent less than in 2005 and amounts to approximately 6 000 tonnes.

The President of the Group, Djordjo Radoicic said that tobacco wasseeded on approximately 5 000 hectares, adding that only about 3 000 families in Serbia are involved in the production of tobacco.

In the first nine months of the year 2006, Serbia has made a deficit of USD 60 million foreign trade in tobacco, which, according to the data of the Chamber of Commerce, is the single largest deficit in the foreign trade in agricultural and food products. . . .

Milan Prostran, the Chamber of Commerce Secretary for Agriculture, said that the tobacco production in Serbia has been decreasing considerably every year and estimated that it is bad that the state plans to abolish incentives for stimulating production

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• Japan Tobacco buys Serbian factory 

Japan Tobacco Intl. Monday acquired 98.45 percent of a Serbian factory to both sell on the local market and export cigarettes.

Japan Tobacco International signed an agreement with the Serbian government, paying $35 million for the cigarette factory in Senta, north of Belgrade, said Mladjan Dinkic, Serbian Finance minister.

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