SETimes.comSerbian court confirms sentences for Djindjic's killers
30/12/2008
Serbia's Supreme Court on Monday upheld the sentences of nine people convicted of murdering Zoran Djindjic, but reduced those handed down to three other participants
(Beta, B92, Radio Serbia, AP, VOA, Javno.hr - 29/12/08)
The Supreme Court of Serbia confirmed on Monday (December 29th) the sentences for nine of the 12 convicted participants in the 2003 assassination of late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. It reduced the sentences given to the three other members of the group.
The court upheld the 40-year sentences given by the Belgrade Special Court for Organised Crime in May 2007 to Milorad "Legija" Ulemek and Zvezdan Jovanovic, the main suspects in the murder of Serbia's first democratically elected prime minister.
The judges had found Ulemek, a former commander of the notorious special police unit known as the Red Berets, guilty of orchestrating the attack on Djindjic, who died in a hail of bullets outside the main government building in Belgrade in March 12th 2003. They also found Jovanovic, who served as his deputy in the Red Berets, guilty of pulling the trigger.
The Supreme Court additionally confirmed the 35-year sentences for Aleksandar Simovic, Ninoslav Konstantinovic and Vladimir Milisavljevic, all members of a criminal group called the Zemun clan. It upheld the 30-year prison terms handed to two other members of the same gang, Milos Simovic and Milan Jurisic, and to former Security Information Agency officer Branislav Bezarevic, as well as the eight-year sentence for former Red Berets member Sasa Pejakovic.
The high court, though, meted out some clemency, cutting the 35-year sentence for Sretko Kalinic of the Zemun clan to 30 years, finding the shorter term to be appropriate punishment for his role in the assassination. Taking into account Dusan Krsmanovic's confession, judges cut ten years off his original 30-year sentence. Former Red Beret Zeljko "Zmigi" Tojaga saw his 30-year sentence halved, since the court ruled that he had participated in only one part of the plot to kill Djindjic, namely, an attempt on February 21st 2003 to stage a car accident in Belgrade.
The aim of the conspirators was to bring former President Slobodan Milosevic's allies back to power, halt pro-Western reforms and preclude any further extraditions of war crimes suspects to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, according to the verdict.
According to the Belgrade-based Beta news agency, the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday categorised the crimes committed by Ulemek as conspiracy for the purposes of anti-constitutional acts. Court spokeswoman Vesna Dabic observed that Ulemek and Jovanovic, who received maximum sentences, now face a 15-day deadline to file appeals, if they wish to do so, and the Supreme Court will then meet to decide on the case.