Zemun Clan "planned to murder killers of journalist"

Zemun Clan "planned to murder killers of journalist"

According to him, the had been "stories" that the criminal gang was "supposed to kill Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurak." The plan was allegedly in place "because the two had killed Curuvija."

Milenkovic also told the court that the idea was abandoned on the orders of the now late boss of the Zemun Clan Dusan Spasojevic.

According to Milenkovic, Spasojevic initially ordered the gang's members to kill Romic and Kurak, while Spasojevic received his orders from Milorad Ulemek aka Legija.

"While we were supposed to kill them, we didn't know the reason, but the story later was that it was because of Curuvija, which we were not interested in at the time, because we, as members of the Zemun Clan, committed a lot of murders," he said.

Milenkovic also said that Zemun Clan members followed Kurak and Romic for several days but stopped when Spasojevic told them, after his conversation with Ulemek, "not to go ahead with the realization of the murder."

Curuvija, a journalist and publisher, was gunned down in Belgrade in April 1999. The Organized Crime Prosecution indicted then State Security (DB) chief Radomir Markovic, head of the Belgrade DB Center Milan Radonjic and chief inspector of the Second Administration of the DB Ratko Romic.

According to the indictment, Curuvija was killed by Miroslav Kurak, who is still at large, while Romic was his accomplice. Both Romic and Radonjic were arrested in January 2014.

During previous hearings the defendants denied any connection with the crime.