Serbian pop singer Ceca, widow of warlord Arkan, avoids jail term | Serbia

Serbian pop singer Ceca, widow of warlord Arkan, avoids jail term

Serbia's queen of kitsch, the warlord widow and bestselling pop singer known as Ceca, has been placed under house arrest and fined €1.5m (£1.3m) for embezzling football transfer funds, in Belgrade's celebrity trial of the decade.

The criminal case brought the biggest fine ever levied by a Belgrade court. It also proved, lawyers and human rights activists protest, that crime pays. They say the sentence shows that some are more equal than others before the law in Serbia.

The glamorous celebrity, whose real name is Svetlana Ražnatovic but who is known by her stage name, pleaded guilty to embezzling millions from the transfers of players from the football club Obilic. The club was once a European contender when it was owned by her late husband, the gangster and warlord Željko Ražnatovic, aka Arkan. Now Obilic is floundering in the amateur league.

Under a plea bargain, Ražnatovic was ordered to spend eight months under house arrest after charges that carry a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

Lawyers were mystified by the fine, which left her making a tidy profit. The charges had her embezzling €2.3m from foreign transfers; that leaves her with €800,000 as proceeds from the crime.

Belgrade lawyer Slobodan Beljanski told the newspaper Blic: "A bad message has been sent to the public, that we are all not equal before the law." The former judge Slobodan Batricevic added: "Ražnatovic has profited from committing a criminal offence." But the judge, Sladjana Markovic, praised her "good character".

Ceca's thumping Balkan "turbo-folk" tunes have made her Serbia's biggest celebrity, and extremely wealthy.

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