Tories lose £8m donation
Monday, 15 October 2007 12:00 AM
The Conservatives have been forced to relinquish an £8.3 million bequest donated to them by a man who was regarded as "delusional" at the time of his death in 2005.
A high court judge ruled Branislav Kostic was mentally incapacitated when he made the decision to rewrite a previous will, and transfer all his fortunes from his only son, Zoran, to the Conservative party.
Mr Justice Henderson said the old man suffered from a serious and untreated mental illness from at least mid-1984 onwards, and therefore the court decided to uphold a will written in 1974 at a time where no-one questioned his stability.
Zoran brought the case before the high court, claiming his father had been paranoid and delusional in the time leading up to his death.
He had become highly suspicious of female family members, accusing them of trying to poison him, and had written the will after saying Margaret Thatcher was "the greatest leader of the free world in history" and that she would save the world from the "satanic monsters and freaks".
Branislav Kostic was born in Belgrade and was 80 when he died in 2005.
He had been imprisoned during the second world war by the Soviet Army and badly injured while fighting against the Nazis.
He made his fortune after establishing pharmaceutical company, Transtrade UK and became a British national in 1975.
Zoran Branislav told the court how his father's behaviour had began to change while they worked together at Transtrade in London.
"During the last months, my father stopped speaking to me completely and would ignore me when he came in the morning," he told the court.
The two became estranged during the 1980s and last saw each other in 1985.
Regardless of this, Zoran Branislav claimed entitlement to the full sum of his father's fortunes, arguing he never would have left the money to the Conservatives had he been "of sound mind".
The Conservative counsel alleged, however, the estrangement had occurred as a result of Zoran's career path, not because of the elder Kostic's compromised mental state.
Party barrister, Andrew Simmons, argued Mr Kostic had had a "great and long-standing affection for the Conservative party and his admiration for Mrs Thatcher".
Following the ruling today, Zoran, who lives in Edinburgh, will receive the entirety of his father's estate.
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