Goran Milosevic, "Putevi Srbije" employee:
In the trial of the "road mafia", people who were the lowest link of a crime chain were sentenced, while organizers walked away free. I am disappointed; no one appreciates what I did for my enterprise and the state.
Goran Milosevic (36) from Smederevo, "Putevi Srbije" employee who disclosed the "road mafia", said in his statement given to "Press" daily that he regretted he reported the multimillion theft at highway toll booths! After a verdict by which 41 persons were sentenced to a total of 131 years in prison, Goran claims that the sentenced people were the lowest link in a chain and that organizers were allowed to walk away free. Mr. Milosevic said he was disappointed because after everything that happened he felt like a culprit instead like a hero!
Goran Milosevic, an employee at highway booth tolls, reported to the police four years ago embezzlement in "Putevi Srbije". He even had video footage which showed how his colleagues stole from the enterprise and the state. However, instead of becoming a hero, Mr. Milosevic has been through a real ordeal!
"These people who were sentenced were the lowest link in an organized chain which robbed the enterprise of millions of euros. They are just ordinary workers. And since organizers, who are obviously protected by someone, were not brought to trial, these people will simply be replaced by other workers. They obviously could not have organized themselves; they were held together by a man who was a link between them and politics. I do not understand why people in higher positions were not sentenced, even with all the evidence. We heard on the trial that organizers took 40 percent of the stolen money. In the end, those people who were sentenced took all the blame", Goran Milosevic said in his statement given to "Press" daily.
After he disclosed the "road mafia", Goran was dismissed and had been unemployed for almost three years!
"I was dismissed with the explanation that I was no longer needed at that job. But I am convinced that it happened because I pointed to crime at the Serbian Assembly forum and asked for help from competent institutions. I have been unemployed for three years and my family barely scraped a living. I had to take many odd jobs. I was reinstated last year under the media pressure and owing to the only man who helped me - Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance", our collocutor said and added:
"I was reinstated to the same job at a highway toll booth although I think I actually deserve to work in internal audit. If I was able to figure out what was going on all by myself, without any resources and assistance, I think I have sufficient experience for that job. But they say I have to have an advanced school or university degree for that job. Maybe I should take a degree at the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac, but I do not have the money! As it is, I sit in a highway toll both feeling like a stool pigeon! I fear I could be blown up any moment. I do not have problems with colleagues, but I can feel they are shying away from any contact with me, fearing for their own safety. I do not fear just for myself, I fear for my family as well. I have a wife and two daughters", Mr. Milosevic said.
Goran said it does not pay to be honest in this country.
"You can only eke out a living if you are honest. If I were one of my sentenced colleagues, I would gladly serve one of those short prison terms, knowing I have provided for my family with the money I stole. It would be as if I worked in a foreign country. I am sure that if I could turn back time, I would not do something like this again. It is better to be unemployed and to sleep on a park bench than to disclose a mafia and see the politicians taking all the credit. The worst and the most devastating is the fact that after all that has happened I feel like a culprit, as if I should not have done it! I wish I had not, because it has not changed anything in this country", Goran Milosevic said.
Milosevic sues former Director Jocic
Goran Milosevic also filed a private lawsuit for libel against Branko Jocic, former Director of "Putevi Srbije", to the Municipal Court in Smederevo. The trial started three years ago but the accused Mr. Jocic never appeared in court.
"Although there are several warrants for his arrest, the police have not done anything. It is impossible they cannot find him. All this leads me to believe that someone is delaying this case until it is statute-barred and that justice will not be served again. That's the way it is in this country. The law is not meant to protect ordinary people. There never seem to be sufficient legal grounds for presentation of evidence against the "untouchables". And they can always get away", Mr. Milosevic said.