Vreme, BIRN: Belgrade Mayor failed to declare villa in Trieste

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In 2018 Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic bought a villa in Trieste, Italy, worth 820,000 euros and broke the law because he failed to declare it to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, BIRN and Vreme published in a joint research report.

The weekly Vreme reported that, at the time, Sapic was the head of the New Belgrade municipality, where he lived and worked, and that, judging by the contract based on his place of residence, he was intending to take advantage of the tax deduction in Trieste.

The article written by Vreme and BIRN journalists reads that, in the land registry, Sapic is listed as the owner of four immovable properties, of which one is a 399 m2 villa, as well as that the journalists of the Trieste daily Il Piccolo toured the location but were unable to approach the villa because the gate had video surveillance.

The second property is a 127 m2 garage, the third is an access road, while Sapic is also one of the 30 co-owners of a forest.

“None of this that can be seen in the Italian land registry exists in the registry of the domestic Agency for Prevention of Corruption. The latest report, which Sapic submitted to the Agency on 19 July 2022, reads that he owns two apartments, neither of which are the size of the property in Trieste,” reported Vreme.

The article notes that the Belgrade Mayor also failed to declare his recently legalized property in the Belgrade neighborhood of Bezanijska Kosa.