Serbian Arms Case Whistleblower ‘Wanted the Truth Heard’

No information about arrest for three weeks:

Illustration. Photo: Pixabay

Serbian police arrested Obradovic on September 18 at his office in the state-owned arms factory in Valjevo on suspicion that he had revealed trade secrets by leaking documents that showed how a private company linked to Branko Stefanovic, the Interior Minister's father, purchased cut-price arms from Krusik.

The public was only informed of the arrest three weeks later, when the weekly magazine NIN published initial, off-the-record information on October 10, after which BIRN published more details of the case.

"The state is systematically syphoning money out of this company. I was only interested in the documents related to corruption," he says.

Obradovic recalled how about a dozen policemen came to arrest him on Wednesday, September 18, at 2.30pm.

"They came to my workplace, the people from BIA [Security Information Agency]; I don't know what were they expecting. They thought I worked for some agency and was taking money. The first time I came into contact with the police, there was that initial shock," Obradovic says.

He was handed over to the High-Tech Crimes Prosecutor's Office and then detained in the Belgrade Central Jail.

On October 14, under media and public pressure, he was transferred from the jail to his home in Valjevo, where he will remain under house arrest until his 30-day custody term expires on Friday, October 18.

The Prosecutor for the Cyber Crime says Obradovic remains suspected of tampering with business intelligence.

In the meantime he says he feels well and is trying to catch up with what was published about him while he was in prison.

Behind bars, he says he received most...