Serbian Officials Deny Wiretapping Claims

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and Aleksandar Djordjevic, head of the Serbian Security Agency, BIA, denied on Wednesday any involvement in unlawful wiretapping, following claims by opposition leader Bojan Pajtic that his telephone calls had been intercepted.

Stefanovic said he was ready to resign if there is evidence that police had wiretapped the opposition leader.

"Do not doubt that we will probe everything. We are very interested to show that these [claims] were just fabrications," Stefanovic said during a joint press conference with Djordjevic in Belgrade.

Progressives Official Denies He Sought Bribes

In what purports to be a transcript of an unlawfully wiretapped conversation between Bojan Pajtic and Lidija Udovicki, former manager of the US company Continental Wind Partners, Udovicki appears to claim Nikola Petrovic, a senior official from the ruling Progressives, was trying to extort money from the US company.

Petrovic, the director of the state energy supply company Elektromreze Srbije strongly denied the allegation on Wednesday, saying he was ready to take a polygraph test. He also demanded to see proof of the bribe claims and threatened to sue.

Petrovic and the US company dominated media coverage recently after five US congressmen wrote to US Vice President Joseph Biden saying that Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is linked to strategic company takeovers via his brother and a group of his closest friends, including Petrovic.

The letter drew an angry response from Vucic, who said it was an attempt by some people to threaten him after they failed to get permission to build wind farms in Serbia, which tabloids then linked to the US firm Continental Wind Partners. The company...