Two of five accomplices, Sarajevo-born Vladimir Jovancic and his son Boris, who allegedly helped Russian businessman Artem Uss escape from house arrest in Italy in March, were arrested on Tuesday, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Boris Jovancic was detained in Desenzano near Brescia, while his father Vladimir was arrested in Croatia.

A Volvo V60, which was one of the cars that Artem Uss used to escape from Italy, was registered as Boris Jovancic's property.

Uss, the 40-year-old son of a Siberian governor and an oil magnate close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, broke his ankle while under house arrest in Basiglio, near Milan, and fled to Russia after a Milan court approved his extradition to the US, where he is wanted on multiple charges.

Reportedly, he used an international network of contacts, including a Serbian criminal group, to escape. Uss was arrested in Italy at the request of the United States of America on October 17, 2022 and transferred to prison before a three-member panel of the Milan court approved his request to be transferred to house arrest.

The US Embassy in Rome reportedly asked the Italian authorities to review the situation due to the risk of flight, but the Ministry of Justice replied that this matter falls under the jurisdiction of the courts.

The affair caused friction between the ministry and the judiciary and led Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to say that the government would clear up the “anomalies”. The investigation into the escape is ongoing.

US authorities on Vladimir Jovancic

The US Department of Justice said on its official website that the Bosnia national citizen Vladimir Jovancic allegedly helped Artem Uss escape from Italy.

“A two-count indictment was unsealed yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Vladimir Jovancic, a Bosnian national, with obstructing justice and assisting escape for his role in helping Artem Uss flee from Italy to Russia following an Italian court ruling that Uss would be extradited to the United States. Uss had previously been charged in United States v. Orekhov et al. with heading a global scheme to smuggle millions of dollars in sensitive military and dual-use technologies and oil from Venezuela to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and companies. Jovancic was arrested yesterday in the Republic of Croatia and will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a future date,” said the press release.

Vladimir Jovancic was born 52 years ago in Sarajevo, and his son Boris was born in Italy.