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DE RUEHBW #0303/01 0651459
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061459Z MAR 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0398
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000303 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON KCRM KCOR PREL SR
SUBJECT: EDUCATION MAFIA ARRESTED ON BRIBERY CHARGES 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1. (U) Serbian police have arrested 18 people, 
including 12 university teachers, in an ongoing 
investigation of rampant corruption at the Law Faculty 
of Kragujevac University. The arrests, all occurring 
since February 20, include Assistant Minister of 
Education Emilija Stankovic, Sveta Puric, rector of the 
Kragujevac Law Faculty, and deputy rector Bozin 
Vlaskovic.  All are suspected of taking bribes over a 
long period of time in exchange for issuing passing 
grades to law students who did not sit for exams.  The 
arrests were a result of a seven-month operation that 
included an undercover agent who enrolled in the law 
school and paid to pass exams and get a diploma.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
EDUCATION MAFIA 
--------------- 
¶2. (U) The members of the so called "education mafia", 
as they already have been labeled by the media, are 
accused of selling degrees from the Kragujevac Law 
Faculty to students for EUR 12,000 to 16,000; they 
allegedly sold passing grades on individual exams for 
EUR 500 to 750.  While checking the faculty archive, 
police learned that some students even "took exams" 
before they were officially enrolled at the faculty. 
All of the arrested professors were found to have more 
than one apartment and had been living well beyond 
their means, according to press reports.  For example, 
Assistant Minister Stankovic was driving a BMW worth 
EUR 70,000, and police found EUR 40,000 cash in the 
apartment of one arrested professor. (Note: Average 
salaries for law faculty professors are approximately 
EUR 2,500 month.) The Law Faculty has suspended all of 
the arrested professors from work. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Milan Parivodic, Minister of International 
Economic Relations and acting Minister of Finance, told 
the Ambassador on February 21 that he had learned from 
friends at the law faculty that the accused Assistant 
Minister Stankovic had worked out a deal with seven 
students to buy passing grades in her Roman Law class 
for a total of EUR 3,500.  The students collected the 
money and delivered it to her with their student 
indexes.  After she signed their indexes with passing 
grades, the students waited outside for her.  According 
to the minister's account, as Stankovic was leaving the 
building, the students beat her, took their money back, 
and walked away with the money and the grades in their 
indexes. 
 
OPERATION "INDEX" 
----------------- 
¶4. (SBU) The investigation, under the operational name 
"Index" (a student booklet in which grades are 
registered) began in June 2006 in cooperation with the 
Special Organized Crime Prosecution Department in 
Belgrade.  Milorad Veljovic, director of police at the 
Ministry of Interior told our International Criminal 
Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) 
office that police learned of the law faculty 
corruption in a plea bargain with one of the mediators 
who had been arrested for auto theft in a separate 
incident.  This police officer from Smederevo went 
undercover as a student and used hidden cameras to 
record every payment transaction at the Faculty. 
Veljovic told the ICITAP office that the police action 
in Kragujevac was a result of USG assistance of 
specialized anti-corruption training and other 
assistance to the police. 
 
¶5. (U) The investigation is ongoing and could spread to 
other institutions of higher learning where the 
incriminated professors lectured.  A police statement 
said that the professors are suspected of taking bribes 
from a large number of students in exchange for passing 
grades over a long period of time.  In accordance with 
the Serbian criminal code, the arrested professors face 
jail time from three months to 12 years if they are 
convicted on charges of receiving bribes. 
 
PROFESSORS SURPRISED, CITIZENS ELATED 
------------------------------------- 
¶6. (U) Members of the academic community were not 
surprised by the arrests, and reactions were mixed. 
Milos Djuran, dean of the Kragujevac University, first 
learned of the police action from the media and said 
that each of the accused should be held responsible. 
Branko Kovacevic, Dean of Belgrade University, shared 
 
BELGRADE 00000303  002 OF 003 
 
 
similar sentiments, adding that these professors should 
not be allowed to work at the university.  However, he 
questioned the credibility of the police, claiming that 
they had protected criminals in the past, and added 
that these charges must be proved first.  Other 
professors interviewed by the media, rather than 
expressing concern over systemic corruption, complained 
that police actions damaged the credibility of their 
profession. 
 
¶7. (U) Citizens and students from Kragujevac welcomed 
the police action.  The Student Union of Serbia (SUS) 
said that it was not surprised by these arrests, 
claiming that it had been warning authorities about 
corruption, "which exists in all universities in 
Serbia."  SUS said the university system in general is 
still not reformed, retaining values and rules from the 
Milosevic era.  SUS organized a campaign in 2005 
publicizing its contention that bribery, document 
counterfeiting, non-transparency in work, and forcing 
students to buy books written by the professors were 
examples of pervasive corruption throughout Serbia's 
universities.  SUS is asking that the investigation be 
expanded to include the universities in Belgrade, Novi 
Sad, Nis and Kosovska Mitrovica. 
 
¶8. (U) Nemanja Stamencic from SUS told econ FSN that 
SUS would announce on Monday, March 5, another 
corruption case at a university.  The Ministry of 
Education and Sport announced on February 28 the 
creation of a hotline for citizens to report incidents 
of corruption in universities upon the request of 
student organizations.  However, Stamencic noted that 
SUS for some time has had its own email address for 
reporting corruption; he sees the ministry as 
attempting to polish its image after the arrest of the 
assistant minister. 
 
ARRESTED PROFESSORS HELD HIGH POLITICAL POSITIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶9. (U) Some of the arrested professors were politically 
active and held high positions in political parties. 
Assistant minister Stankovic, a nominee of Kostunica's 
Democratic Party of Serbia, was dismissed from her 
position at the ministry shortly after her arrest. (It 
is not clear how active she was in the party.) 
According to media reports, one of those arrested is 
professor Predrag Stojanovic, who was a Fulbright 
scholar, vice-chairman of Vladan BaticQs Christian 
Democratic Party of Serbia (DHSS) and the partyQs 
representative in the Serbian parliament from 2001 to 
¶2004.  During the last election, Stojanovic ran on the 
list of Cedomir JovanovicQs Liberal Democratic Party 
(LDP), but was not elected to the parliament. 
Professor Srdjan Djordjevic was a member of the Serbian 
Renewal Movement (SPO) during the 90's, but changed 
parties a few years ago and became a member of DHSS. 
Djordjevic was also a judge of the Constitutional Court 
in 2006. 
 
DIPLOMAS FROM SERBIA NOW IN QUESTION 
------------------------------------ 
¶10. (U) As a consequence of these allegations, local 
press reports that the Greek Ministry of Education has 
decided to put a freeze on recognition of diplomas from 
Serbian universities after discovering a number of 
false diplomas that Greek students brought home from 
Serbia. 
 
¶11. (U) Dean Kovacevic, of the Belgrade university, 
described Greece's move as an "unpleasant overreaction" 
to a case that is an exception.  Local media reported 
him as saying that Belgrade University has processes in 
place to check corruption and expel anyone guilty of 
giving or receiving bribes before police get involved. 
To date, there have been no public cases of professors 
or students being expelled or diplomas annulled at 
Belgrade University, indicating that the university is 
extraordinarily clean, that its disciplinary procedures 
are effective, or that the current system is not 
working in catching corruption. 
 
¶12. (U) The police, in conjunction with the Office of 
the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, have been 
targeting corruption in higher education in recent 
years.  In 2006, police arrested the dean and deputy 
dean of the private Faculty of Dentistry in Pancevo for 
issuing false official documents and for tax evasion. 
They are charged with taking more than EUR 1 million 
from students.  In November 2005, the police arrested 
 
BELGRADE 00000303  003 OF 003 
 
 
three employees from the Belgrade University Faculty of 
Dentistry for corruption and mediation in receiving 
bribes.  At the beginning of 2006, the director of the 
College of Nursing in Cuprija and his associates were 
dismissed for abuse of their official positions, 
although it is not clear that the activity involved 
selling grades. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶13. (U) The increasing number of arrests of public 
officials on corruption allegations is a positive 
development.  These arrests have occurred in several 
different instutions: not just in education, but also 
in the Supreme Court, Commercial Courts, Customs, even 
the toll operation of the highway department.  There 
have been no convictions to date, and time will tell 
whether Serbia is serious about its anti-corruption 
initiatives.  But the recognition by the police 
director that USG anti-corruption assistance is 
producing tangible results illustrates the value of 
sustaining Embassy programming in this area. 
 
POLT