Controversial businessman Zaher Iskandarani a k a the "Prince of Banat" was arrested on October 5, 1995. A little while before his apprehension, he had bought a piece of land in the Sacalaz Commune, Timisoara County, where he was planning to build a cigarette factory.
The construction and endowment of the factory were done while the owner was still in prison, convicted for forging bills to pay for the equipment to be installed in Sacalaz, among others. In December, last year, Iskandarani was released from prison after five years.
The cigarette factory in Sacalaz is currently undergoing testing, with the production most likely to begin next month. The raw material will be brought from the United States of America, with the productive capacity of the factory reaching some 80,000 cigarette boxes per day.
So this is how Iskandarani might shortly turn from a cigarette smuggler into the most important taxpayer in Timis County. Theoretically at least.
Apart from the cigarette business, Iskandarani also owns a factory bottling still water taken from the "Damocles" spring located in the Baile Herculane spa. The entire output of the still water factory is exported, with the ten- or twenty-litre bottles shipped to Syrian Military, say sources close to the business.
Zaher Iskandarani was charged for a long list of crimes for several times. He was acquitted in several cases and convicted in others. He was tried by the courts in Timisoara and Brasov on the counts of intellectual forgery, tax evasion, cigarette and coffee smuggling.
In December 1999, the businessman from Timisoara was sentenced to five years in prison in the Rama International case, by a final ruling delivered by the Timisoara Court of Appeals, but he served only half of it, as he was pardoned of the remaining time.
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