Serbian Drug Lord Cries Jail Abuse, Intimidation

Budimir Kujovic is escorted by police on September 24 to face the judge. Photo by BGNES

Serbian drug lord, Budimir Kujovic, claims he was mistreated and harassed during his stay at the jail in the southern Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora.

Kujovic spoke Thursday in an interview for the morning block of the TV channel bTV, saying he was consistently intimidated with demands to provide information that would discredit Bulgarian politicians including the now Customs Director, General, Vanio Tanov.

When asked if it was true he gave money to former Interior Minister, Rumen Petkov, and former Interior Ministry Secretary, Valentin Petrov, the drug lord said he was standing firmly behind his words.

“The prosecution must be notified and everything needs to come out so that it becomes clear what has happened,” Kujovic said.

The Serbian further revealed that Kamen Petkov, former Deputy Interior Minister under Rumen Petkov, and the Plovdiv Prosecutor, Rossen Dimov, had visited him in prison after he was sentenced and demanded the compromising information, adding he was unaware at the time about their political adherence

On his part, Valentin Petrov firmly rejected Kujovic’s accusations and said he had proof the Serbian was lying.

On September 24, Kujovic stated before the court that while he was having business in Bulgaria he used to give money as bribe to Petkov and Petrov.

In his words, the case started after he stopped paying. He stated that his claims could be proved, because there were full records of the information exchange between him, Petrov and Petkov.

The case has been repeatedly postponed over what the defendant has complained are "procedure violations", such as the lack of a Montenegrin-Bulgarian translator in the court room.

Despite the prosecutors' protest that Kujovic understands written and spoken Bulgarian perfectly, so far the trial against him, Nikolay Paskov, Mihail Yankov, and Stoyko Doychev has misfired.

In 2008, Kujovic was sentenced to 16 years in jail, and a BGN 220 000 fine for organizing and conducting drug trafficking. Nikolay Paskov has an effective 10 years sentence, and must pay a BGN 100 000 fine.

The other two have effective sentences of between 10 and 15 years, and must pay fines from BGN 100 000 to BGN 200 000.

 

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