Leaks reveal arms sale scandal in Serbia implicating interior minster’s father
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A man working for the Serbian arms company Krusik unleashed a scandal by leaking files he claims implicate the father of Serbia’s interior minister in a corruption affair.
The employee was arrested and called a “spy.”
DW reports that reports of the minister’s father being involved in arms trade first started circulating last year. In November 2018, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) published leaked documents that seem to show that Branko Stefanovic, father of Nebojsa Stefanovic, visited state arms manufacturer Krusik.
Multiple leaks and reports — all of them fiercely denied by the government — have since indicated that Branko Stefanovic played a major role in the export firm. Internal documents also seem to show that Krusik sold GIM millions of dollars in weapons at surprisingly low prices. These weapons were then resold to foreign buyers. BIRN reporter Aleksandar Djordjevic described the Krusik affair as “the clearest and the strongest proof yet of corruption at the top of government.”
“We can prove that the father of the interior minister, without any references or experience, is directly involved and directly takes part in the international arms trade,” he told DW. Krusik employee Aleksandar Obradovic was eventually revealed to be the source of the leaks. Authorities have since arrested Obradovic on suspicion of exposing “trade secrets,” and he remains under house arrest.
Balkan Insights reports father of Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Branko, travelled last year to Saudi Arabia as part of a company delegation for the private arms trade firm GIM, BIRN can reveal.
The information comes after senior officials downplayed Branko Stefanovic’s involvement in the arms trade through the intermediary arms trade company. Officials have minimized Branko Stefanovic’s role in the company. His son at one point insisted that his father was “not affiliated with GIM in any way”, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has since said that he was just an ordinary employee there.
However, documents that BIRN has obtained show that Stefanovic was not an “ordinary” staffe
