| “Mob boss planned murder of justice minister” |
| 23 October 2009 | 13:58 -> 16:14
| Source:
B92, Beta, Blic |
BELGRADE --
A crime group connected to Sreten Jocić sent death threats and planned to murder Justice Minister Snežana Malović, it has been confirmed to B92.
 | Sreten Jocić (FoNet, archive)
|
According to reports in today’s daily Blic, the authorities came upon information that hitmen had been hired to kill the minister in January as she entered a maternity ward.
The Ministry of Justice did not want to confirm or deny the threats but said that nothing would stop them from reforming the judiciary.
The news appeared on the first anniversary of the murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić, in which Jocić is the chief suspect. His 6-month custody period expires next week, by which time charges are expected to have been brought.
The minister’s insistence on passing the Law on Seizure of Assets Gained through Criminal Enterprise could have easily cost her her life.
The police suspect that this is exactly why several crime groups, including the one allegedly connected to Sreten Jocić, sent death threats to Snežana Malović, B92 understands.
Blic quotes sources close to the investigation, stating that bounty hunters were hired to murder Malović while entering or exiting a maternity ward in January, adding that this was not the only plan to murder her.
The daily’s sources say that several groups have been trying to kill the minister since the end of last year—groups from Valjevo, Pale and Šabac, among others—whose members were arrested before achieving their goal.
The main motive behind the assassination attempts is said to be Malović’s insistence on enacting the Law for Seizure of Assets Gained through Criminal Enterprise, Blic writes.
He added that crime bosses were especially perturbed by the minister’s announcement that judges and prosecutors would be re-elected, because it would ensure that all people in the court system that had had contact with the underground would not be elected.
Threats began by way of text messages once Malović announced that the law would be adopted.
Once the law took effect in March, and a directorate for seizing property was formed, serious death threats were made to Malović and her colleague in the ministry, Slobodan Homen, as well directorate chairman Jugoslav Stojiljković, Blic’s source stated.
The office of attorney Zdenko Tomanović, who is defending Jocić, claims that the law is unconstitutional.
“I will not give up the fight against organized crime and legislative reform. I have confidence in the state institutions and their appraisal of my security situation, and the security people I am surrounded by,” Malović told Blic, but did not want to speak about specific threats she may have received.
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