Serbian former jewel-thief pens memoirs

A former professional Serbian basketball player turned international criminal on Sunday launched her book "Pink Panther," which recounts her experience as part of a criminal organization that Interpol claims stole over $500 million worth of precious gems in 35 countries.

Forty-year-old Olivera Cirkovic, once an excellent pupil from a good family, one of the best basketball players in Serbia and an ex-director of Belgrade-based professional soccer club Red Star, became a member of an international criminal gang that Interpol-christened the "Pink Panthers", reports Efe news.

The former gang member claims to have enough mind-blowing material "for a couple of Hollywood movies".

The Pink Panthers were an international jewel-thief network with members from Serbia and other ex-Yugoslav states, considered to be responsible for some of the most audacious thefts in the history of crime.

Since 1999 it is thought the "Pink Panthers" committed some 350 robberies of gold and jewels worth over $500 million across 35 countries.

After almost 8 years in prison, Cirkovic decided to pen her astounding memoirs, which include a spectacular escape from an Athens prison in 2012, with her autobiography "Me, Pink Panther," a book she launched on Sunday at the Croatian "Interliber" Bookfair.

--IANS

mr/