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Milo Djukanovic, Montenegrin President |
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Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic is being investigated in Italy for alleged involvement in Mafia-run cigarette smuggling, a judicial official says.
The official in the anti-Mafia magistrates' department in the southern city of Bari told Reuters Djukanovic and some aides had been put under investigation following a police inquiry into tobacco smuggling.
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Djukanovic's spokeswoman has launched a furious denial
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ROME, Italy - May 29, 2002 - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic is being investigated in Italy for alleged involvement in Mafia-run cigarette smuggling, a judicial official says.
The official in the anti-Mafia magistrates' department in the southern city of Bari told Reuters Djukanovic and some aides had been put under investigation following a police inquiry into tobacco smuggling.
"Everything is based on the testimony of a former contraband runner and some turncoats," the official said, referring to ex-Mafiosi who have turned state's evidence.
The official said the alleged crimes had been committed between the early 1990s and 2000, and were part of a two-year investigation called "Crna Gora" after a location in Montenegro.
But Djukanovic's spokeswoman said the president of the Balkan republic had committed no wrongdoing and had not been informed of any investigation.
"I decisively deny the claims on the involvement of Milo Djukanovic into any kind of illegal activities," Vinka Jovovic told Reuters in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica.
"This is about speculations which appear in the media whenever Montenegrin state politics and its president are to be discredited."
To be placed under investigation in Italian law is one step short of being charged and does not necessarily imply guilt.
A member of the local anti-Mafia police division confirmed to Reuters that investigators had recently gone to Montenegro to investigate Mafia activities.
Djukanovic has denied accusations in the past of involvement in cigarette contraband trade, but he has never been placed under investigation.
Earlier this year a Montenegrin journalist was sentenced to three months jail for libel in Montenegro after Djukanovic sued him for publishing stories saying he was involved in a Balkan tobacco smuggling ring.
Montenegro is Serbia's only partner in what remains of the old Yugoslavia. During the rule of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Western governments presented the pro-democratic Djukanovic -- who pushed for Montenegrin independence -- as a man of integrity.
But when Milosevic was swept from power in the autumn of 2000, the West's support for Djukanovic waned.
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