Charges raised against former minister Davinic over satellite

Charges raised against former minister Davinic over satellite

Former minister of defense might spend from six months to five years behind bars because of renting of a spying satellite from Israel

After the Senior Court proclaimed itself ‘not competent’ regarding the case of the ‘satellite affair’, the charges raised by the Senior Prosecution has been changed to abuse of office.

The former defense minister Prvoslav Davinic has been charged with concluding of a damaging contract with the Israeli company ‘ImageSat International NV’ about renting a satellite. Due to that damaging contract Serbia now has to pay about 27 million of Euros in compensation of damage.

In June of 2005 Davinic signed a contract about renting of a satellite for supervising of the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The contract was signed at a hotel in Paris.

The charges have been forwarded to the Primary Court. The process has begun and is closed to public as well as the documentation bearing the mark of state secret.

Davinic has already been questioned by the prosecutor on which occasion he denied any responsibility.

- I am not responsible since there is no damage. Everything has been paid to the Israelis through compensation deals. You should ask Dinkic why it was done so. Without my consent he was shipping to Israel tractors thus compensating all those millions of Euros that you are talking about. Since the damage has been compensated there is no any responsibility on my part. I have not violated the law – Davinic told the prosecutor.

Who Prvoslav Davinic is

He was born in Belgrade in 1938. After working for the UN, he...