NEWS & ANALYSIS

State security 'agent' linked to Pauw book, local underworld killed in Serbia – reports

Incident my have links to organised crime in the country

State security 'agent' linked to Pauw book, local underworld killed in Serbia - reports

6 May 2018

A state security contract agent in Serbia, who was a source in author Jacques Pauw’s critically acclaimed book The President’s Keepers, and whose name also cropped up in the extortion case centering around suspected underworld figure Nafiz Modack, has been murdered in Serbia.

The Telegraf reported on Sunday that Gorgija Gorg Darmanovic (George Darmanovich) was shot in the head while in New Belgrade and died in hospital, and that this incident may have links to organised crime in South Africa.

Four shots had been heard, it was reported, and it is understood the shooter or shooters had fled the scene on a scooter or motorbike.A local source also confirmed to News24 on Sunday that he had died.Darmanovic was a source in Pauw's book and his name has also been linked to Modack.In January in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, during Modack’s bail application in an extortion case, Charl Kinnear, a police colonel who is investigating fights in clubs, testified: "The person Modack phoned in Serbia is the same person who gave information for the first few chapters of The President's Keepers."  READ: Modack contacted same Serbian source from Pauw’s book, court hears

Kinnear had been referring to Darmanovic.Pauw's book lifted the lid on alleged shady dealings that former president Jacob Zuma was allegedly involved in."This shows the relationships (Modack) has with people in the South African government," Kinnear had testified.Part of a recorded conversation Modack had, apparently with Darmanovic, had also been played during this bail application which had stretched from mid-December 2017 to the end of February 2018.

News24