Translation provided by KoSSev
A chain of top officials accused of serious corruption in their home countries, whom Aleksandar Vucic appointed as his advisers, providing them with Serbian citizenships and lucrative affairs with the Serbian government, are connected by one man: a former British prime minister, Tony Blair, who was an adviser to Vucic’s government while Vucic was the Prime Minister, and continued to do the same for Ana Brnabic’s government – the deputy leader of Freedom and Justice Party, Marinika Tepic wrote in a statement.
„Before the current affair with the granting of our citizenship to Thailand’s former prime minister convicted of corruption, another former prime minister received Serbia’s protection via citizenship – former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, also accused of serious corruption and also advised by Tony Blair. In the midst of the 2016 corruption allegations, Ponta received not only our citizenship but he also became Vucic’s ‘honorary advisor.’ Ponta was suspected of abusing the powers of his Social Democratic Party leadership to persuade Romanian tycoon Sebastian Ghita to pay Blair €220,000 to come to Bucharest during the pre-election campaign, and in turn, Ghita would achieve political progress,“ the statement said.
The statement further reads that „Ghita fled Romania because of the same affair and came to Serbia. While prosecuted by renowned Romanian anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruca Kovesi and with an Interpol’s arrest warrant issued against him, Ghita received several ‘awards’ in Serbia – asylum in 2017 and Serbia’s refusal to extradite him to Romania, as well as the million-dollar deals for his company ‘Teamnet International SA’ with the Government of Serbia and the Minister of Finance.“
According to Tepic, in Blair’s chain, Vucic is also working for other associates, such as Saudi Arabia Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, whose advisor is also Blair, and the United Arab Emirates – for which Ms. Brnabic explained that the UAE is paying the Serbian government the advisory services of Tony Blair to the government – through the consulting company ‘Tony Blair Associates.’
„It is as if we lack regime crime and corruption so much that we must import it. Serbia, therefore, cannot heal without a strong and independent anti-corruption prosecutor, who must have a police unit under his jurisdiction, independent of the interior minister, or the influence of political sinecures which are complicit in crimes – like what prosecutor Kodruca Kovesi did in Romania,” Tepic wrote in a statement.
Read more:
Is Tony Blair negotiating on Serbia’s behalf? Vucic: My name is not Tony
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