Why is Nobilo not talking about the abduction of David Dragičević? The Dodik’s and Lukač’s police abducted David because they thought he was a spy. There is no one with higher office than Lukač or Dodik for Nobilo to transfer responsibility as it was done in the Perković-Đureković case.
Anto Nobilo inserted himself perfectly well in the sphere of defense of Milorad Dodik and Dragan Lukač, the former being the BiH Presidency member representing the Serbs, and the latter the Minister of Dodik’s police in the Republika Srpska (RS). Following Nobilo’s advice, Dodik and Lukač have, in a synchronized way, publicly blamed the RS Prosecutor’s Office for not solving the case of David Dragičević all this time. Lukač went further in order to protect himself by openly referring to Nobilo’s statements given when he left the team of Davor Dragičević’ lawyers, i.e. that the police had nothing to do with the killing of David.
The public protests “Justice for David” have gained a significant international dimension after the police action in which Suzana and Davor, the parents of late David Dragičević, got arrested. The brutality the police demonstrated against the parents of the child who was abducted and most probably murdered by that same police resulted in a request of “Justice for David” Group for Dragan Lukač, Police Minister to be removed from office.
The blood of Nedžad Dizdarević (17) on Lukač’ conscience
Dodik’s first truncheon Lukač on his conscience has the murder of the 17-year old Nedžad Dizdarević, committed in Sokolac near Bihać in 1994. He launched the arrest of David’s parents and opposition members from the “Justice for David” group out of his alleged fear for his own children. He places his children as a shield between himself and his own ghosts from the past. He sacrifices their privacy in public in order to cease the pressure to discover the truth about the murder of David Dragičević, i.e. to establish a full accountability of the police concerning the abduction, murder and the subsequent cover-up. No one prosecuted Lukač for the murder of the 17-year old Bosniak war prisoner Nedžad Dizdarević, although the video recording showing him while telling that the unfortunate guy should be taken away, after which the latter was ritually slaughtered as a sheep, has been publicly available for almost four years now.
What happened to David Dragičević can, according to the information available so far, be directly compared to the conclusion made by Ante Nobilo on the murder of Stjepan Đureković, for which his client Josip Perković was convicted: “This is about an abduction conducted by the authorities going wrong.”
According to the statements given so far by some actors of the murder investigation, the late boy David got hold of the information on the involvement of the persons in office in drug trafficking and on the money of an unknown origin connected to it circulating in the accounts of such individuals in office.
Abduction of spy Dragičević
The authorities got frightened that David would share this information with the public or with domestic or foreign authorities dangerous for Dodik. David was abducted in order to establish the scope of the information he had, and force him to remain silent. However, the actions demonstrated during the arrest and detention of the protesters from “Justice for David” on the Gregorian Christmas indicated that those led by Lukač completed schools for butchers and not for the police profession. Namely, they were beating the protesters before the cameras, even pulled pistols, and continued with the beatings of those brought to police detention. Who would expect from such a team that they would treat the abducted person in a sophisticated way, and without resorting to the raw Balkan force? Who could possibly know about the abduction of David, and yet expect that it would not go wrong?
Lukač offered an excuse for Al Jazeera in 2016 that he did not order the murder of Nedžad Dizdarević, stating that he ordered instead that Dizdarević should be taken away and treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Allegedly, he said, he was very interested in seeing how an enemy he was fighting against looked like, and that was why he approached that particular prisoner. Then, he asked him a question and, since the latter did not answer it, he ordered that he should be taken away. He thought, he said, that the prisoner would be treated as in all previous similar cases – in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Well, he said that he did not really know until after the aftermath of the war what happened with that prisoner of war. This case, given the war situation, differs in only one legal feature from that of Đureković and Dragičević. Namely, this was “the arrest which went wrong”.
Mujkić was killed because he was spying for the Bosnian Serbs?
Anto Nobilo was offering excuses for the RS authorities that they had nothing to do with the murder of David Dragičević, after he cancelled the power of attorney to Davor Dragičević. To Lukač, Nobilo’s statements are the basis of his defense. Nobilo had another case similar to this. He represented the family of Šefik Mujkić, who was beaten to death by the Service for Protection of Constitutional Order (SZUP) agents Zlatko Plazibrat and Miroslav Tarnaj in mid-September 1995 in the building of Slavonski Brod police. Late Mujkić had contacts with the intelligence services of the Bosnian Serbs upon incentives provided by the Croatian secret services. He was an intermediary between these two services, and often, in addition to information, he transferred money, too. After one such exchange, SZUP agents invited him to a so-called clearing hearing. He had to explain to them the whereabouts of some money sent by the Croatian service to the Bosnian Serb service through him as an intermediary. They exaggerated with excess force, and Šefik’s heart failed him consequently.
On behalf of Mujkić’ family, Nobilo sued the state of Croatia and won the dispute over a compensation of the non-material damage. However, no Croatian authority representatives ever claimed that they had no connections with Mujkić as it was claimed subsequently by Nobilo for the police of Dragan Lukač and Milorad Dodik. The Croatian police was just defending itself that Mujkić did not die due to a heart failure caused by the beatings but that it happened due to the heavy burden of evidence presented to him by the agents on the cooperation with the secret service of the Bosnian Serbs.
Blame it on the dead!
Concerning the case of Đureković which is interpreted by Nobilo by the phrase “an abduction which went wrong”, he was actually trying to turn away the guilt from his client Josip Perković and transfer it to late Stane Dolanc and late Željko Ražnjatović Arkan respectively. Stjepan Đureković was a German spy, as testified before Nobilo by another witness from Republika Srpska – a former Counter-Intelligence of former Yugoslavia (KOS) colonel Milan Damjanović. Spies did not get killed but abducted by the SFRY State Security Administration (UDBA). The Federal UDBA chaired by Dolanc organized the abduction of Đureković, but the implementing agent Željko Ražnjatović Arkan, Serbian-Montenegrin criminal, messed it up. The latter covered with blood the walls of the garage in which the killed Đureković was found.
Why is Nobilo not talking about the abduction of David Dragičević? David was abducted by Dodik’s and Lukač’ police because they thought that he was a spy. There is no one above Lukač or Dodik to whom Nobilo could transfer responsibility as he did in the Perković-Đureković case. That is why Nobilo is treading on the Prosecutor’s Office of Republika Srpska. Allegedly, as he claims, the police committed some unintended mistakes at the beginning, but some relevant evidence was established later on those involved in the committing of murder, while it was also possible to prosecute the crime police technician who deleted the evidence video, and the pathologist who provided the false findings of the autopsy.
Nobilo said all this at the time when Ifet Feraget, the true lawyer representing Davor Dragičević stated that he established communication with the main prosecutor of Republika Srpska, who promised to him that he would issue an indictment as soon as some additional forensic findings would be provided. At the press conference where he praised Nobilo, RS police minister Dragan Lukač defamed Feraget for working upon instruction of the foreign centers and for persuading Davor Dragičević not to receive a warrant summoning him to police for a hearing over the threats directed to Lukač. While the Lukač’ police was arresting the parents of David Dragičević and other prominent persons from the “Justice for David” group, Milorad Dodik, in his capacity of the Chairman of BiH Presidency, had a meeting with the Russian Ambassador to BiH. Of course, he blamed the EU ambassadors for “interfering in the internal issues of RS and in the functioning of the RS authorities when they condemned the police action on the Gregorian Christmas in Banja Luka.”
Nobilo involved the foreign services before Lukač and Dodik
While cancelling the power of attorney to Davor Dragičević, Anto Nobilo said that his former client was manipulated by the British secret service. Anto Nobilo defined a comprehensive defense framework for Dragan Lukač and Milorad Dodik, including the framing of attacks against Ifet Feraget, the EU ambassadors in Sarajevo, Davor Dragičević…
In his interview for Belgrade’s Messenger (Kurir) Dodik is also claiming the following now:
“There is a foreign factor supporting them, first of all the United Kingdom, whose aim is to remove the authorities in RS and in Serbia from office. The main motive behind causing instability is the intention of the West to prevent the Russian influence in these areas”, Dodik said.
“Britain approved of six million pounds aimed at preventing the Russian influence here. This means that the money was pumped into various NGOs, media… to produce instability and remove the authorities from office in both Belgrade and RS. Why does anyone think that the measure of their policy on Russia is obligating us here?! It certainly does not”, Dodik says.
Anto Nobilo has never demonstrated closer interests to the Russian Federation in any of his public appearances in the area of former Yugoslavia. The American Deep State and the EU cannot stand Dodik, whereas he is very important to Aleksandar Vučić and Vladimir Putin alike. Vanjka Špiljak, Croatian – Swiss investor in Republika Srpska and in Serbia, was very important to Anto Nobilo for the defense of Josip Perković. In his book “Defending Perković…” Anto Nobilo mentions 83 times the Špiljak’s family name in a positive context. He claims that Mika Špiljak and his son Vanjka have no connections whatsoever with the killing of Stjepan Đureković, contrary to the judgment against Krunoslav Prates from the same case, by which both Špiljaks – the father and the son – were found directly connected with the murder concerned.
Pursuant to the reports of “Days” (Dani) Magazine of 2000, Vanjka Špiljak was solemnly received as INA representative by the then Republika Srpska President, and Milorad Dodik’s mentor, Biljana Plavšić, who was convicted of war crimes in the meantime. Dani is claiming that Milorad Dodik also received Špiljak after the latter was received by Biljana Plavšić.
The connection between Špiljak and Plavšić, Dodik, Tuđman, Milošević…
These contacts match in timing with Vanjka’s meeting with Franjo Tuđman in the early 1999 in the Office of the Republic of Croatia’s President. It was agreed at this meeting that Špiljak should be an intermediary between the Croatian President and Slobodan Milošević. Vanjka praised himself for knowing Milošević while he was working at INA and while Milošević was Director of “Tehnogas” in Serbia.
In 1999, Vanjka founded the company Mitan Handels in Zurich and ceased to present himself as a negotiator on behalf of INA, who discussed with the RS authorities a return of INA’s property nationalized and renamed to “Krajinapetrol”. In the initial years of Dodik’s reign, Vanjka Špiljak became the owner of 12.13 percent of Krajinapetrol. At the same time, he became a fuel supplier for SFOR. Špiljak included individuals close to Dodik in the multimillion business with SFOR.
The profit was enormous as no taxes were paid for that business in the RS.
In 2013 Vanjka opened his oil terminal in the Free zone in Smederevo. The Serbian state-owned company “Nafta” (Oil) is also owned by that terminal. Špiljak’s business in Serbia bloomed during the reign of Aleksandar Vučić. Špiljak’s oil terminal was on the South Flow route, a planned pipeline which was supposed to transport the Russian gas to Europe via Serbia. Due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the EU blocked the implementation of the South Flow. Aleksandar Vučić has never failed to use an opportunity to criticize the EU for such a measure, saying that it is hypocrisy for the Germans to receive the Russian gas through the North Flow and thus get their heating, whereas the Serbs have to remain frozen given that the South Flow is blocked by Angela Merkel. Aleksandar Vučić gave the products of Špiljak’s Standard Wood Company from Ćuprija as a gift to the Prime Minister of Sweden. That company has a sister one in Prijedor in Republika Srpska. The latter is led by Slavko Malobabić, who was employed in 1985 by Mika Špiljak as the latter’s advisor in the Cabinet of the President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Alliance of Croatia (CH SKH). Later on, Malobabić became chief of cabinet to Stanko Stojčević, who replaced Špiljak on the position of the chief of the Croatian communist party. Malobabić escaped from Croatia in the late 1991, when it was disclosed that he was an important member of the Counter-Intelligence Service (KOS) terrorist group “Labrador”. He took refuge in Banjaluka, where, for some time during the war, according to the book of Josip Manolić, with the knowledge of the Croatian authorities, his former boss Stanko Stojčević resided, too.
The Swiss connection in defending Dodik and Vučić
To which extent is, actually, Vanjka Špiljak, and through him Anto Nobilo as well, connected with protecting the regime of Milorad Dodik, is maybe most clearly shown by the fact that, on the Julian Christmas, the police of Dragan Lukač arrested and exercised force twice against Draško Stanivuković, RS Parliament member. This very young politician protested last year against the corruption between Špiljak’s company and Dodik’s authorities with reference to the transfer of Slavko Malobabić’ son Veliša Malobabić from Standard Prnjavor Company to the position of the chief of cabinet of the president of the city of Banjaluka assembly.
It is difficult to connect the Croatian authorities at this moment to the engagement of Anto Nobilo in Republika Srpska. Ex-president Ivo Josipović, who opposed the handover of Nobilo’s client Josip Perković to Germany, by insisting on public appearances of his son Saša Perković as his national security advisor, attended Nobilo’s book launch on the defense of Perković and thus contributed to the importance of the event. Due to his cooperation with Milorad Dodik, Ivo Josipović was criticized at the time by the Bosnian Franciscans, i.e. by Friar Petar Jeleč specifically.
However, Ivo Josipović is a former president at this moment, whereas the current female president of Croatia is in a defensive mode on providing support to anything or anyone that could inflict political damage on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
But, if Vanjka Špiljak is placed as a factor in the equation of this story, then the situation becomes uncomfortable for the Croatian and the Swiss authorities alike. At the marking of the anniversary of Mitan Oil Serbia held last year in Belgrade, the ceremony was attended by the ambassadors of Croatia Gordan Bakota, and of Switzerland Pillippe Guex respectively.
The Swiss Ambassador likes emphasizing that Špiljak’s Mitan Oil invested in Serbia over 20 million Euros, and that it was possible to store 5 percent of the European oil supplies in Smederevo.
Since March 2014 the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has been operating. It was solemnly inaugurated by the then President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter, and Vice President of the Serbian Government at the time Aleksandar Vučić. Both Špiljak’s companies – Mitan Oil and Standard Ćuprija are members of this chamber, whereas Edin Dacić, Director of Standard is a member of its Steering Board. This same Dacić is also Director of Špiljak’s Company Standard in Prnjavor.
Switzerland is not a member of the EU and it does happen that its foreign policy interests are not in accordance with those of the EU. It remains to be seen in the forthcoming weeks to which extent this is the case regarding the leaders of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, and of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.
