In Serbia, just ranked one of Europe's most corrupt countries in a global survey, allegations of massive embezzlement among politicians and their cronies usually fizz out instead of exploding.

Transparency International's corruption perception index on Tuesday placed Serbia 85th worldwide, near countries such as Panama, Algeria, Lesotho and Madagascar, but also neighbours Bosnia- Herzegovina and Montenegro.

The report surprised few in a country clearly plagued by corruption, not only among those seeking money to cut red tape for investors, but at the top - including government ministers who appear to be above the law.

In recent years, several government ministers, dozens of their partners and many more "friends of friends," as well as performers and sport legends, were accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Corrupt and inefficient courts stall proceedings or hand out a slap on the wrist. Often, verdicts take years and by then other scandals have diminished the suspected misdeeds.

In 2003, just months after Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic was slain, his aides Zoran Janjusevic and Nemanja Kolesar were investigated for allegedly laundering money from privatizations.

Janjusevic, who had put 700,000 euros (1.02 billion dollars) through his account, eventually got a year's probation and a 14,000- dollar fine. Kolesar just faded from the public eye. Both denied wrongdoing.

Also still on trial is former Yugoslav defence minister Prvoslav Davinic, indicted for the unauthorized 2005 rental of a spy satellite for 45 million euros.

He never explained why Serbia might need a satellite, only saying it was intended to overlook Kosovo. A court is still mulling his deposition.

Davinic is also on trial for approving an overpriced 175-million- euro contract for 60,000 helmets and thousands of flak jackets for Serbia's 30,000 army conscripts.

The equipment's maker, Mile Dragic, was charged with colluding with Davinic to boost the price and skim the profits. He remains free - and the army's chief supplier of protective gear.

Former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's infrastructure minister made several deals that raised questions, including a 2007 highway concession that collapsed and may lead an Austrian contractor to sue for damages.

The media accused the infrastructure minister in former premier Vojislav Kostunica's two cabinets,

The minister, Velimir Ilic, was previously accused during is 2004- 2008 tenure for grossly overpaying an order of used Swedish trains. Serbia's largely helpless corruption watchdogs blasted the deal as scandalous, but no official investigation was launched.

An Ilic protege, former Serbian highway agency director Branko Jocic, was fired amid allegations he bilked the state of more than 100 million euros.

Not that investigations raise much hope among Serbs, who watched an affair involving central bank vice-governor Dusan Simic evaporate. after his 2006 arrest in his home.

Simic was indicted on corruption charges for accepting a suitcase with 100,000 euros from a commercial banker. The start of his trial has been delayed twice because no witnesses ever show up.

One of them is Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, who was also in the apartment minutes before the police raid.

Not only politicians and businessmen seemingly duck justice in Serbia.

Bishop Pahomije, an indicted paedophile with protection from Belgrade and the Orthodox Church, stalled two criminal cases into obsolescence.

Ceca Raznatovic, a wildly popular star of Serbian pop music known as turbo-folk, is dodging investigators in a criminal probe into transactions of the football club she inherited from her slain crime- boss husband.

As long as politicians, their friends and thousands of others who are rich or connected enough remain above the law, foreign investors will stay away and Serbia will linger on the margins, analysts warned in the wake of the Transparency report.

"The level of corruption is a crucial element," investment advisor Miladin Kovacevic said.