Incident treated as "assassination attempt"

The probe into weapons found in Banja Luka sports hall is being conducted as if it was an attempted assassination of Serbian Boris Tadic, daily Blic writes. According to the daily, the incident is treated as the assassination attempt due to ties that Bozidar Stanisljevic, who admitted bringing the weapons into the venue, had with the criminal underworld. Incident treated as "assassination attempt" Quoting sources from Serbian police (MUP), Blic writes that the weapons trail leads back to Luka Bojovic, a boss of a Belgrade gang. The daily also reports that Stanisljevic had connections with a former State Security Service employee and a gangster Ljuban Ecim who is very close to Bojovic. Ecim was also Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s best man and he tried to form a unit similar to Red Berets during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was on the U.S. black list under suspicion of financing Hague indictees with drug money. The incident, which included stashed weapons in the sports hall where a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska (RS) was held and which was attended by top Serbian and RS officials, is being treated as a terrorist attack due to those connections, Blic has learned from police sources. The same sources say that there is still no solid evidence but that the investigation is being conducted as if Tadic’s assassination was planned. Serbian government’s Media Office Chief Milivoje Mihajlovic says that it is impossible that only one person was behind the incident. He added that he would not like to give any further comments before the end of the investigation and that all he could say was it was a very grave situation when you had Serbia's state officials gathered in a place hiding weapons. The RS police arrested Stanisljevic on Tuesday under suspicion that he had brought three kilograms of TNT, a detonator, a sniper rifle, two automatic rifles, two Scorpion guns, a silencer and 400 bullets of various calibers into the sports hall. According to media reports, the suspect turned himself in to the police and said he wanted to sell the weapons. Bozidar Stanisljevic (Tanjug) B92 Blic Tanjug

Incident treated as "assassination attempt"

Quoting sources from Serbian police (MUP), Blic writes that the weapons trail leads back to Luka Bojović, a boss of a Belgrade gang.

The daily also reports that Stanišljević had connections with a former State Security Service employee and a gangster Ljuban Ećim who is very close to Bojović.

Ećim was also Željko Ražnatović Arkan’s best man and he tried to form a unit similar to Red Berets during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He was on the U.S. black list under suspicion of financing Hague indictees with drug money.

The incident, which included stashed weapons in the sports hall where a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Srpska (RS) was held and which was attended by top Serbian and RS officials, is being treated as a terrorist attack due to those connections, Blic has learned from police sources.

The same sources say that there is still no solid evidence but that the investigation is being conducted as if Tadić’s assassination was planned.

Serbian government’s Media Office Chief Milivoje Mihajlović says that it is impossible that only one person was behind the incident.

He added that he would not like to give any further comments before the end of the investigation and that all he could say was it was a very grave situation when you had Serbia's state officials gathered in a place hiding weapons.

The RS police arrested Stanišljević on Tuesday under suspicion that he had brought three kilograms of TNT, a detonator, a sniper rifle, two automatic rifles, two Scorpion guns, a silencer and 400 bullets of various calibers into the sports hall. According to media reports, the suspect turned himself in to the police and said he wanted to sell the weapons.