Serbia’s richest man, Delta Holding owner Miroslav Miskovic, has been acquitted of charges of financial abuse involving road maintenance companies, but he faces retrial on charges of tax evasion, the Court of Appeals in Belgrade ordered in its final verdict on September 27, B92 reported.

In June, Miskovic was sentenced to five years in prison and handed an RSD8mn (€65,040) fine for assisting his son Marko Miskovic to evade taxes. Back then, the Special Department for Organised Crime of the High Court in Belgrade acquitted Miskovic of charges of siphoning money out of road maintenance companies due to lack of evidence.

Miskovic, his son Marko and their partner Milo Djuraskovic were arrested in a case related to the privatisation of several road construction companies. Serbian organised crime prosecutors filed an indictment against the Miskovic father and son and seven others in May 2013 following a six-month investigation into suspected illegal dealings between 2005 and 2010. The prosecution's indictment says they were illegally siphoning off funds and assets, causing some RSD17bn (€142mn) of damages to the road companies and RSD472mn damage to the Serbian state budget.

On September 27, the court also confirmed previous acquittals of Marko Miskovic and Djuraskovic on the first charge, while they will also be tried again for tax evasion, B92 reported.

All the decisions of the Court of Appeals announced on September 27 have been adopted unanimously. The court explained its decision by saying that the first-instance verdict contained substantial violations of criminal procedures because the ruling's reasoning did not state the decisive facts. The reasons given had been substantially vague and contradictory, the court said according to B92.