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The Belgrade Court of Appeal sentenced Darko Šarić to 15 years in prison for being the organizer of a group accused of smuggling a total of 5.7 tons of cocaine from South America to Western Europe during 2008 and 2009.
Goran Soković, who is a fugitive and was tried in absentia, was sentenced to the same prison term, according to the decision of the Court of Appeals published on its website.
The Court of Appeals confirmed the sentences of the first instance verdict, although it modified the classification of the crime, while the sentences of the other defendants were reduced or slightly increased for the most part.
Saric has been in detention since he surrendered to Serbian authorities on March 18, 2014 and had previously been on the run for five and a half years.
In explaining the decision on Saric’s punishment, the court stated that it was a mitigating factor for him to be a family man, but that it considered as an aggravating factor that “criminal activity for which the organization was carried out on a planetary level.” determined by large amounts of cocaine ”.
He also had Saric’s previous life in mind, but that was not taken into account in sentencing.
“Taking into account the significance of the aggravating circumstances that this defendant found, the mitigating factors could not be of such significance that they led to a lighter sentence than the maximum threatened by law, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison” said the Appeal. court, reports Tanjug.
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