Background of Đinđić murder elusive

Background of Đinđić murder elusive

In an interview with daily Danas, Terzić said that people belonging to the group were mostly employed in the Ministry of Interior and the State Security (DB), which were “under Mihajlović’s umbrella.”

Mihajlović last week called on Terzić to explain why Zemun gang leaders Dušan Spasojević and Mile Luković were released from custody in 2001.

He also directed serious accusations at the former government media office chief and close Đinđić associate Vladimir Popović.

Both Spasojević and Luković were named suspects in the Đinđić murder case, and were killed in a showdown with police during Operation Saber, launched immediately after the March 12, 2003, assassination.

Terzić said that Mihajlović suddenly recalled the event “after so many years”.

“It happened at the end of 2001, so my question is what was Mihajović, as the interior minister, doing between that point and March 2003 to stop activities of the Zemun Gang,” Terzić said.

He stressed that Mihajlović was “intentionally covering up” his responsibility for Đinđić’s death.

“During the state of emergency proclaimed immediately after Zoran Đinđić’s murder, Supreme Court President Leposava Karamarković and state Prosecutor Siniša Simić were suspended from office, along with other employees in the judiciary in a campaign aimed at shifting responsibility from police to judiciary,” Terzić argued.

“Persons accused and found guilty of Đinđić’s murder were never any friends of mine nor my subordinates in office. I never had an informal or formal meeting with them and I do not know them. None of them can say he was my friend or even an acquaintance” Terzić stressed.

"Political background difficult to prove"

A Democratic Party official says it will be very hard to uncover the full truth behind the assassination of Zoran Đinđić.

Dragoljub Mićunović said that the political background of the assassination of prime minister Zoran Đinđić murder will not be fully revealed any time soon.

He told daily Dnevnik that there were still many questions remaining after the verdict was read in the Đinđić murder case, but that it would be hard to get to this information “mostly because these things are very hard to prove.”

“I think that the assassination has become a very complicated case. Every day, we are uncovering different events and different ties. The public probably only knows who committed the crime, but not who was behind it all,” Mićunović said.

“I am convinced that, unfortunately, we will not get to the truth easily, because it is very difficult to prove the political background of the death of the prime minister, even to say with complete certainty, who made the decision to have the assassination take place,” Mićunović said.