A FUGITIVE Serbian banker accused of embezzling millions of pounds had been hiding in Cyprus for eight years until police arrested him on his return to Belgrade on Friday, according to a report from Associated Press.
But when asked yesterday, neither Cyprus police, nor the Immigration Department, nor the Cyprus International Business Association knew nothing about Jezdimir Vasiljevic having lived in the country for so long.
Vasiljevic, the proprietor of the Jugoskandik bank, told Serbian police on his return that he had worked closely with former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, and funded his pre-election campaign.
He claimed he had enough information to put Milosevic behind bars for life.
Vasiljevic fled Serbia in 1993, leaving behind a scattering of bankruptcies among account holders, lured by astronomical interest rates.
He made the mistake of returning home — convinced that police had forgotten his crimes – only to be handcuffed as soon as his plane touched down at Belgrade airport.
He told police he had spent eight years living in Cyprus.
Cyprus ratified the European Union Criminal Law Convention on Corruption earlier this year, which seeks to clamp down on corruption, crime and money laundering through cross-border mutual assistance to hasten extradition of suspects.
Ratified by Cyprus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the treaty will come into effect when 14 states have signed up.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
