13. 09. 2005

BATIC: TIJANIC STRIPPED RTS OF MILLIONS OF EUROS

BELGRADE, September 13, 2005 – President of the Democratic Christian Party of Serbia (DHSS) Vladan Batic, filed a legal complaint yesterday to the Special court for organized crime in the name of the movement “October 5” against the RTS director Aleksandar Tijanic. Tijanic was charged for negotiating contracts damaging to the station. Batic also demanded urgent legal suit against the finance minister Mladjan Dinkic for damaging conduct of business of the Nacionalna Stedionica. The DHSS leader told the media yesterday that Tijanic was charged for misuse of office, under the Article 242 Paragraph 4 in relation to Paragraph 1 and 3 of the Criminal Code of Serbia. Batic said the complaint was based on solid evidence, contracts and testimonies of witnesses. “Aleksandar Tijanic directly participated or authorized negotiation of contracts which damaged RTS for millions of euros. We have stated three examples of such contracts in the complaint – with the House Media Agency, D-Media agency, and Direct Media agency. All contracts were signed without the consent of the Managing Board and Government and without tenders. Tijanic engaged intermediaries, which drove the price through the roof. That’s how Tijanic ended up paying enormous price for stale Universal’s films from 1997 to 2002”, said Batic. Batic also stated that the entire RTS commercial space was sold for the next 18 years, according to the claims of people from RTS, potential witnesses on the case. Batic added that since Tijanic became the director, RTS incomes were three times lower than when Aleksandar Crkvenjakov was leading this media house. “It’s all in front of the prosecutor. Either I lie or Tijanic lies – it will be determined once the prosecutor reacts. RTS could have, for example, contacted Universal Pictures directly to buy the films, but they chose to go through the agency. Bosnian series “Black Chronicle” was paid five thousand euros per episode, which is more than any top Hollywood series. It was broadcast in the prime time, but had three times lower ratings than “Better Life” or “X Files””, said the DHSS leader. Commenting on the decision to file legal complaint against Dinkic, Batic said that Dinkic deluded the former government. “No one knew it was a scam or that Nacionalna Stedionica would be a private bank. Dinkic gathered all known tycoons from Serbia, who were protected by the government and who became owners of Stedionica. The deal was finalized through the “Euro Akciz Bank” in Moscow. The epilogue of the story was to sell the best national bank, Nacionalna Stedionica, to Greek partners, allegedly the Europis Bank from Greece. Dinkic and his tycoons would earn tens of millions of euros”, said Batic. According to Batic, there are several tycoons mentioned, Hamovic and Lazarevic among them.