Some of the arms believed to be used in last month’s deadly Paris attacks, were manufactured in Serbia’s arms factory, including one exported to US in 2013, a company official said on Friday.
“A semi-automatic pistol PV M92 was produced in our factory and legally exported to the (Florida-based) company Century International Arms in May 2013,” Milojko Brzakovic, head of Zastava arms factory said.
Following the November 13 attacks in Paris, Serbia’s interior ministry was asked by French police and Interpol to check serial numbers of seven pieces of weapons believed to have been manufactured in Zastava, Brzakovic said.
“We were given numbers of weapons and confirmed that all had been manufactured in Zastava and we delivered information where these weapons ended up,” he said.
All serial numbers, including the semi-automatic pistol and several automatic rifles, versions of AK-47 known as Kalashnikov, matched the weapons legally produced and sold by our factory, he said.
“We have strictly controlled trade of arms and military equipment, nothing goes out of the factory without the approval of the Serbian government and export licence,” Brzakovic insisted.
He had no explanation how the legally sold weapons, including the pistol exported to the US, ended up in the hands of attackers in Paris.