BIRN: Serbian minister’s father legal advisor to arms dealer

BIRN said it had access to documents which showed that Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic’s father Branko went o Saudi Arabia in June 2018 as a legal advisor to the GIM company to sell mortar shells at almost twice the price it paid when it bought them from Krusik.

The involvement of the minister’s father in the purchase of munitions from Krusik has been the subject of reporting for weeks with claims that GIM paid less than cost for the mortar shells which were sold to a Saudi company and ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists in the Yemen.

 The documents that BIRN cited prove that Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic was wrong to claim that his father had nothing to do with any arms deals. Branko Stefanovic’s title was listed on the request for a Saudi Visa and on the visa itself.

The visas for the GIM delegation (which included company owner Goran Todorovic) were issued by the Saudi embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Birn published a copy of Stefanovic’s visa on its Javno.rs web site.