The Man Who Knew Too Much

By ANDREW PURVIS

With SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC behind bars in a 36-sq.-ft. windowless cell (complete with squat toilet) in downtown Belgrade, a former crony emerged as the man whose testimony put him there. MIHALJ KERTES was chief of Customs from 1994 to 2000, placing him at the center of a criminal network that permeated the regime. It was through Kertes, investigators say, that as much as $4 billion in levies collected at Serbia's borders was diverted to Milosevic. Now, say Milosevic's lawyers, Kertes is telling all. To defend himself from that testimony, Milosevic said the stolen funds were not for personal gain but to arm Serbian rebels in Croatia and Bosnia. But that admission, the first ever, was welcomed by U.N. war-crimes prosecutors trying to document Belgrade's role in fomenting the Bosnian war. Kertes is under heavy police guard in an undisclosed location and reportedly near nervous collapse for fear that one of his erstwhile friends might somehow track him down.

--By Andrew Purvis. With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic/Belgrade

With reporting by Dejan Anastasijevic/Belgrade