Jocić, accused of organizing murder of journalist, acquitted

Jocić, accused of organizing murder of journalist, acquitted

Željko Milovanović, accused as the direct perpetrator of the murders, was today sentenced to 40 years in prison, while his helper Milenko Kuzmanović was sent to jail for five years.

As the court found, Jocić's best man Slobodan Đurović made an agreement with an unknown person that Pukanić should be murdered in exchange for EUR 1.5 million. Đurović has been found guilty of this in another trial, conducted in Croatia, and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Even though acquitted today, Jocić, aka Joca Amsterdam, will remain in jail because he was previously sentenced to 15 years for the murder of Goran Marjanović.

Both the prosecution and the defense can appeal the ruling at the Appellate Court in Belgrade.

Jocić has been protesting his innocence since the beginning of the trial, and denied any connection to the murders of the publisher of the Nacional weekly and his associate. In his closing argument, Jocić urged the court to acquit him of the charges.

In late January, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime argued that the court should find Jocić guilty and sentence him to 40 years in prison for orchestrating the murder, and the same penalty was sought for Željko Milovanović - a member of his Belgrade team - as the direct perpetrator.

The prosecution believed that Jocić organized the murder of Pukanić, ordered by unidentified person or persons, that he received EUR 1.5 million, and that this financial gain was his motive.

In its closing argument the prosecution also concluded that it was clearly proven who committed the murders, but that it was difficult to "arrive at those who gave the order," claiming, however, that their motive was indisputably established to be Pukanić's reporting about international cigarette smuggling, as well as his testimony "before a court of a European country."

Željko Milovanović was last year put on trial in absentia before a Croatian court and sentenced to 40 years in prison, as he was found to have planted the explosives that killed the victims.

The Croatian part of Jocić's group - Robert and Luka Matanić, Amir Mafalani, Bojan Gudurić, Slobodan Đurović, as well as Milovanović - were all tried in Zagreb.

Matanić, who organized the group, was sentenced to 33 years while his close cousin Luka Matanić was sent away for 15 years, as was Mafalani.

Gudurić, who was the "backup" assassin in case the original plan failed, and Đurović, as the intermediary between the client and the perpetrator, were also found guilty and sentenced to 30 and 25 years in prison, respectively.

According to the Serbian indictment Pukanić was killed because he was presenting, in Croatian and Serbian media, his findings about the activities of several criminal groups active in the territory of Serbia and neighboring countries.

The District Court in Zagreb did not establish the existence of a criminal organization, as alleged in the indictment, nor who ordered the murders, and therefore also did not determine the motive for the liquidations.

The motive of those accused of carrying out the murders was greed, according to the Croatian court.

It also announced that that only Đurović, as liaison between the unknown client and the perpetrators, knows who the client is.

Đurović in January 2011 testified via video link from Zagreb to defend Jocić, stating that he had nothing to do with the murders.

Đurović noted that the judgment of the District Court in Zagreb does not mention Jocić, while the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime charged him as the organizer.

"Sreten Jocić was arrested on the basis of statements given by (cooperating witness in the Croatian process) Tomislav Marjanović, who said that he spoke with someone in Roberta Matanić's apartment, and that he assumed it was Jocić," Đurović said at the time.

Gudurić and Matanić refused to testify from Zagreb in the Belgrade trial.