December 27, 2010

Predrag Suboticki Released On Bail


In February 2010 Predrag Suboticki was arrested according to the suspicions of police that the money that was being sent to the Raško-Prizren Eparchy was being embezzled. It was suspected that Predrag Suboticki embezzled 350,000 euros from the fund for the reconstruction of Serbian Orthodox monasteries of Kosovo. Predrag Suboticki, operated a church-linked construction firm Rade Neimar, which was engaged in the reconstruction of monasteries destroyed in ethnic Albanian unrest in March 2004.

The money that was being sent to the Raško-Prizren Eparchy was also to be used for the soup kitchens in Kosovo which feed about 1200, but it seems instead they were going straight to private riches and luxurious lifestyles for several of the recently defrocked Artemije’s closest colleagues, including Monk Simeon Vilovski, his brother Vladimir Vilovski, his godson Predrag Subotički and Gordana Marković, who was the director of the State Bureau for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in 2007.

The investigation showed that Vilovski and Suboticki were buying apartments in Belgrade and property in Greece with church funds. Serbian police minister Ivica Dacic said that at least 350,000 euros were handed out in cash from church funds to pay fictional construction bills.

Vilovski is at large in Greece, after the Greek Supreme Court denied Serbia's extradition request and released him in mid-July.

Predrag Suboticki, upon initiation of the trial, was released on bail by request on 22 December 2010 to gather the evidence for his defense and to attend to his health and family.

It will be difficult to indict both Vilovski and Suboticki unless it can be shown where the money for the construction of monasteries went. Vilovski and Suboticki will be tried separately.