Selakovic: Trial to raise and settle many issues

BELGRADE - The trial of arrested drug lord Darko Saric will raise and settle many issues, Serbian Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic said late Tuesday.

"Apparently it will not be a trial like any other. Organised crime implies a connection between the state and criminals where someone is helping the criminals. It is completely obvious that it is a trial that will raise and settle many issues," Selakovic told the RTS.

The trial of Darko Saric will be a test for the prosecution authorities, the prosecutor's office and the court, Selakovic said, expressing confidence that the state will pass that test.

Selakovic said that Saric has been charged with laundering EUR 22 million, and that the drug lord's money has penetrated into many spheres, as well as that he may also be implicated in dubious privatisations.

An in absentia trial of Saric, without him as the first defendant, would have been incomplete, casting a shadow of doubt, Selakovic said.

"In this way, the credibility of Serbian institutions is restored, but so is the resolve to put an end to corruption and organised crime," the minister of justice said.

Saric's arrest is a result of efforts by a task force within the Security Information Agency (BIA) that was set up by First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic last summer, Selakovic said.

The operations of the task force led to the noose tightening around the fugitive, who subsequently decided to turn himself in, Selakovic said.

The activities of the task force were only known to a small number of people, Selakovic said, but did not rule out the possibility that Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, who is also the interior minister, was aware of them.

"I suppose that he...