In cooperation with Israeli company Elbit Systems, Serbia has opened a drone assembly factory in the Makiš neighborhood of Belgrade, while prominent Israeli lawyer Zion Amir, who also represents Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been appointed as one of its directors, BIRN reveals.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, after several months of postponed deadlines, opened the Israeli military company Elbit Systems’ drone assembly factory on Wednesday, September 17.
Vucic opened the factory together with Israeli Ambassador Avivit Bar-Ilan without the presence of journalists. Only footage was published on social media, due, as the Serbian president said, to the confidentiality of the production.
“We are proud to have attended this important event marking the opening of a new facility in Serbia and cooperation between Serbia’s local defense industry and Elbit Systems,” the Israeli Embassy posted on Instagram.
Although cooperation with Elbit Systems, which BIRN had previously reported on, has now been confirmed, the company whose premises will house the production is called SDS Technologies.
BIRN’s investigation shows that the drone assembly facility is located in Belgrade’s Makiš neighborhood, while the owner of SDS Technologies is the London-based company CUPA Limited.
The name SDS Technologies appeared in Serbia’s business registry several hours after the facility was opened, but not as a newly established company. Instead, it was the new name of CUPA Enterprises, a company registered last year for “satellite telecommunications.”
Despite Vučić’s earlier announcements that Serbia and Israel would share ownership equally, the current ownership structure of SDS Technologies does not reflect this. SDS is owned by the London-based company CUPA Limited, which is majority-owned by Greek citizen Atanasios Ramos, who is unknown to the wider public.
On the day the factory was opened, SDS Technologies appointed two new directors. One of them is Zion Amir, a prominent Israeli lawyer who also represents Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the Supreme Court of Israel.
Who is Zion Amir?
During his career, Amir has represented numerous prominent clients, and since 2025 he has also represented Netanyahu personally, as well as the Israeli government before the Supreme Court in five petitions against the government’s decision to dismiss Ronen Bar, the former director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
According to the newspaper Haaretz, before the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Ronen Bar warned Netanyahu about a potential attack during a phone call.
Israel’s state prosecutor also argued that Netanyahu’s dismissal of Bar was illegal, stating that the Israeli prime minister was in a conflict of interest because Shin Bet was investigating the “Qatargate” affair, in which Netanyahu’s associates were suspected of involvement in paid promotion of Qatar’s interests in Israel.
One of Netanyahu’s associates under investigation is also Srulik Einhorn, a propaganda adviser to Aleksandar Vučić, about whom BIRN previously reported together with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Given that Zion Amir is a criminal lawyer, the reason for his appointment at SDS Technologies is unclear, BIRN reports.
At the opening of the drone factory in Makiš, the Serbian president said that three more factories were planned, near several airports.
BIRN previously reported, based on documentation reviewed by its journalists, that Serbia and Elbit had planned to open a drone factory in Šimanovci, in premises owned by Željko Mitrović. Mitrović denied this, while BIRN says this suggests that the factory’s location was under consideration for a long time and that plans changed during the process.
BIRN journalists visited the Makiš facility several months ago, based on information from two independent sources, but at the time they did not have evidence confirming that a drone assembly facility would be opened at that particular location.
The factory is located among numerous commercial warehouses, and there was nothing on the outside to indicate that a security-sensitive technological process was taking place there.
The name SDS Technologies was displayed at the gate to the property, although at the time it was not possible to find a company under that name in the business registry.
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Source: N1 Foto: TANJUG/EPA
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