Suspected drug boss shows up in court, pleads "not guilty"

Suspected drug boss shows up in court, pleads "not guilty"

BELGRADE -- Darko Šarić on Monday appeared before the Special Court for Organized Crime in Belgrade for the first time and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

"I do not feel guilty on any of the indictments. That is all a lie," he said.

The suspected drug boss who spent several years on the run and was arrested last week thus took part in the continuation of the trial, launched against him and members of his criminal group in absentia. They are charged with smuggling several tons of cocaine from Latin America to western Europe in 2008 and 2009.

"I consider the indictment to be false, it is all a smokescreen of the former regime to obscure their own thieving. I did nothing to this country, I never hurt a fly, so I am puzzled by this harangue. I have been meeting with and collaborating with influential people who hold positions and with the rich, they are over there, I am here. Everything's like in American movies when one get set up, but I hope that the film will end and that I will prove that I am innocent," Šarić said as he addressed the court.

He blamed what he referred to as "the former regime" one more time, when he said that the prosecutor was "pretending to be Sherlock Holmes," while "the former regime had set him up."

Asked by the judge about his previous convictions and his property, Šarić said that he was never convicted before, and that he "no longer owns anything." Asked how he managed to support himself, Šarić said that "the state now supports him" and wished to "on that note, praise the prison cook."

He then told the court that he was a Serbian citizen, and also gained Slovak citizenship five...