A Serbian court has convicted a former top aide of late President Slobodan Milosevic of transferring milions of dollars of state money to foreign accounts and sentenced him to eight years in prison.

The Court for Organized Crime said Monday that ex-customs chief Mihalj Kertes abused his position and hurt the state budget when he illegally transferred the money to offshore accounts in Cyprus during U.N. sanctions in the 1990s. He was not accused of stealing the money.

The court says Kertes acted under orders from Milosevic, whose decade-long rule in Serbia was marked by poverty, wars and international isolation and who was trying to beat the international sanctions.

Milosevic was ousted in 2000 and died in 2006 while on trial for genocide.

December 27, 2010
Associated Press

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