Maximum sentences for Ulemek and Jovanović

Maximum sentences for Ulemek and Jovanović

Second accused Zvezdan Jovanović, who fired the shot that killed Đinđić, has also been sentenced to 40 years in jail.

Criminal Zemun Clan members Aleksandar Simović, Vladimir Milisavljević, Ninoslav Konstantinović and Sretko Kalinić were also found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison each, while Dušan Krsmanović, Miloš Simović, Milan Jurišić, former JSO member Željko Tojaga and former BIA officer Branislav Bezarević received 30 year jail terms. Saša Pejaković, formerly of the JSO, will spend eight years behind bars.

Three and a half years after it started, the Đinđić’s assassination trial, often referred to as “The Trial of the Century”, has thus reached its end.

Prime minister Zoran Đinđić died on March 12, 2003, from a deadly sniper rifle bullet wound to his heart, at the entrance to the Serbian government building in Belgrade.

President Boris Tadić, former Prime Minister Zoran Živković, former Đinđić cabinet members Žarko Korać and Vladan Batić and Democratic Party officials, ministers in the current government Slobodan Milosavljević and Milan Marković were all in the courtroom today.

The reading of the verdict and sentencing was attended by more than 100 Serbian and foreign media crews.

Presiding judge: Đinđić killers aimed at the state

Presiding Judge Nata Mesarović said in the explanation of the verdicts passed today that the knowledge that a hostile criminal organization could murder a prime minister was the hardest fact learned from the process.  

“Zvezdan Jovanović, an officer with the disbanded police Special Operations Unit, fired two bullets at Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić on March 12, 2003, one of which fatally wounded him, while the other injured his bodyguard Milan Veruović,” Judge Mesarević read out.

“The Đinđić murder was a political murder directed against the state, in which the criminalized part of the JSO and Dušan Spasojević’s [Zemun] gang took part,” she continued.

Speaking about the large volume of presented evidence, Judge Mesarević quoted now late Zoran Vukojević, one of the protected witnesses murdered during the trial, who said “Dušan and Legija are one and the same”, as well as that they made the decision to kill Đinđić.

Speaking about the interrogation of Zvezdan Jovanović conducted by police, Mesarević, among others, quoted his statement that said, “I have personally liquidated Prime Minister Đinđić”.

The judge pointed to the fact both Jovanović and another defendant, Dušan Krsmanović, described preparations and the act of murder in the same way, adding that Ulemek’s defense was “unconvincing and compromised by evidence”.

Judge Mesarević then said that based on all the evidence presented to the court, it was determined that JSO deputy commander Zvezdan Jovanović had killed Zoran Đinđić, firing his rifle from an apartment in Belgrade’s Admirala Geprata Street.

She also said evidence confirmed Jovanović’s confession, made after his arrest, linking him beyond doubt to the rifle used to kill Đinđić. There was no reason to reject his confession, as it was made according to the law, in the presence of his attorney.

The court did not accept the defense teams’ argument that three, instead of two shot occurred, as well as that they were fired from a different location, as many pieces of evidence linked the Admirala Geprata Street location with the material traces recovered at the scene.

Ulemek and Spasojević organized the assassination in fear they would be arrested, the judge told the court.

“Zoran Đinđić’s cabinet was truly determined to deal with organized crime as new organized crime legislation was passed, and a special police unit set up,” Mesarević said.

“What upset them [Ulemek and Spasojević] the most was the fact the murders of Ivan Stambolić and Slavko Ćuruvija as well as many other murders and kidnappings were being investigated,” she said.

None of the former JSO members accused of the crime, with the exception of Jovanović himself, saw possible Hague indictments as a motive to kill Đinđić. None of the JSO members have ever been indicted by the ICTY, Mesarević added.