Ceca In Trouble Again

Serbian folk music queen Svetlana Raznatovic – better known as Ceca – is in more trouble, this time for allegedly beating up the manager of a soccer club.

Raznatovic is one of the most popular and highest-paid artists in the Balkan music industry and is known for her hoarse voice and plunging necklines.

Already serving eight months under house arrest as part of a plea bargain for pleading guilty to illegally selling player contracts from her late husband’s soccer club, she made a brief appearance in a Belgrade court Nov. 24.

The judges adjourned the hearing until December.

Raznatovic and another person are accused of insulting and beating up the manager of Obilic Belgrade FC.

Serbian daily tabloid Blic claims Raznatovic may have hidden whatever inheritance she received from late husband Zeljko Raznatovic, an ultra-nationalist paramilitary leader who was gunned down in the lobby of Belgrade’s InterContinental Hotel in 2000.

The paper says its sources believe she doesn’t have the money to pay the second installment of the euro 1.5 million ($2 million) debt she owes the state for the illegal sale of the Obilic players.

Her critics have repeatedly claimed that Raznatovic has for years evaded legal prosecution over a number of issues, mainly due to the support of many senior politicians who consider her untouchable because of her popularity.

However, in 2003, she was jailed in connection with the assassination of Serbian reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Police found a huge cache of weapons in her home in the upmarket Dedinje district of Belgrade, although she claimed they were her late husband’s property and she had not wanted to throw them out.