Belgrade’s High Court announced Monday it had decided last month to accept an indictment prepared by prosecutors in early June over the deal allegedly arranged to gain sole ownership of a 7.5 acre (3.04 hectare) plot of land in Belgrade. Two others were also indicted.
Authorities have previously tried to assemble a drug case against Kosmajac, but have not managed to gather enough evidence.
Prosecutors say that in September 2010 Kosmajac got an employee of a company contracted to the country’s land registration authority to scrub the names of co-owners of the plot from the records, handing him exclusive control of the land.
The decision follows a failed earlier attempt by prosecutors last October to indict Kosmajac for the same alleged crime. That attempt was rejected by judges, who said prosecutors had failed to explain how the state had been harmed.
Kosmajac’s lawyer, Djordje Simic, has said he will file a complaint against the decision, Serbian OCCRP partner the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) reported.
Kosmajac came to prominence in June 2014, when Vucic used a press conference to label him a major drug dealer with contacts in law enforcement.
“Everyone fears him and keeps quiet. People from the police and people from other agencies have contact with him,” Vucic said.
Shortly after Vucic's statement, Kosmajac left Serbia. The interior ministry also formed a working group to investigate the allegations against him. Kosmajac soon returned, only to be arrested in November of that year and detained for three months before being released on bail.
In May this year, he was indicted on a separate charge of tax evasion but a court found that the amount was not enough to qualify as a criminal offence, KRIK reported.
Authorities have previously alleged Kosmajac was the main drug supplier to two notorious Serbian crime figures: Ljubisa Buha Cume, former leader of the Surcin Clan; and Dusan Spasojevic, former head of the Zemun Clan.
He also reportedly had an indirect connection with Balkan 'Cocaine King' Darko Saric. Both men had at different times declared their permanent place of residence as the same apartment in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Police footage showed that at the time of his arrest, Kosmajac had the half-opened book “Saric – How the Balkan Cocaine Cartel Conquered Europe”, by KRIK chief editor Stevan Dojcinovic, sitting on his bedside table.
