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Assassination of Zoran Đinđić

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Assassination of Zoran Đinđić
Position of Zoran Đinđić and the sniper at the moment of assassination
LocationBelgrade, Serbia
Coordinates44°48′24″N 20°27′36.1″E / 44.80667°N 20.460028°E / 44.80667; 20.460028
Date12 March 2003
12:23 p.m. (UTC+01:00)
TargetZoran Đinđić
Attack type
Sniper
Deaths1 (Zoran Đinđić)
Injured1 (Milan Veruović, bodyguard)
PerpetratorsZvezdan Jovanović (incl. 11 accomplices under the orders of Milorad Ulemek with ties to Serbian Organized Crime)

Zoran Đinđić, the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, was assassinated at 12:23 p.m. Central European Time on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, in Belgrade, Serbia. Đinđić was fatally shot by a sniper while exiting his vehicle outside of the back entrance of the Serbian government headquarters.

Background

Đinđić previously escaped an assassination attempt in February 2003, in which a truck driven by Dejan Milenković (AKA Bagzi), a member of the Zemun Clan, an organized crime group, attempted to force the Prime Minister's car off the road in Novi Beograd. Đinđić escaped injury thanks to his security detail. Milenković was arrested, but released from custody after only a few days. The investigative court explained their decision to release Milenković by stating that he was a salesman whose business suffered from his absence.[clarification needed]

Institute for Photogrammetry from where Zvezdan Jovanović stood when he shot Đinđić.
Back entrance to the Serbian government building where Đinđić was fatally shot

Đinđić had made many enemies domestically throughout his political career primarily of because of his regard as being pro-Western and his hard-line policies on organized crime. Đinđić extradited Slobodan Milošević to the ICTY in 2001.

The assassination was organized and planned by Dušan Spasojević and Milorad Ulemek, also known as Legija. Ulemek was an ex-commander of the JSO (Special Operations Unit), which was founded by Slobodan Milošević's secret service during the 1990s and was used during Milošević's rule for special operations in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as well as for the elimination of Milošević's political opponents.[1]

It was Ulemek who ordered Zvezdan Jovanović to carry out the assassination. Ulemek was connected to the powerful Zemun Clan of the Serbian mafia and had been recently sentenced to 40 years in jail for other offences that included murder and attempted murder.

The assassin, Zvezdan Jovanović, was born in 1965 in a village near the town of Peć, Yugoslavia. Jovanović was a Lieutenant colonel in the JSO.[2] Jovanović stated that he killed Đinđić because he saw him as a traitor to Serbia.[citation needed]

Details

At 12:25 Central European Time, Đinđić was fatally wounded by a gunshot while entering the Serbian government building where he was supposed to meet Foreign Minister of Sweden, Anna Lindh, and her colleague Jan O. Karlsson. The high-powered bullet with which he was shot penetrated his heart and killed him almost instantly.[3] According to the official government statement, Đinđić was not conscious and did not have a pulse upon arriving at the emergency ward.[4] His bodyguard, Milan Veruović, was also seriously wounded in the stomach by another shot.

Jovanović fatally shot Đinđić from the window of a building approximately 180 meters away, using a 7.62mm Heckler & Koch G3 rifle.[5]

Arrests and trial

Zvezdan Jovanović was arrested in March 2003 and was charged with Đinđić's murder. He was silent during most of his trial but, allegedly, once he confessed to the murder of Đinđić, he said in a police report that he felt no remorse for killing him.[6][7][8]

Dušan Spasojević and his associate Mile Luković, were killed by Serbian police officers during a raid on 27 March 2003.[9]

Aleksandar Simović, one of the co-conspirators, was arrested in Belgrade on 23 November 2006.[10]

On 23 May 2007, the Belgrade Special Court for Organised Crime found Simović and eleven other men - Milorad Ulemek, Zvezdan Jovanović, Dejan Milenković, Vladimir Milisavljević, Sretko Kalinić, Ninoslav Konstantinović, Milan Jurišić, Dušan Krsmanović, Željko Tojaga, Saša Pejaković and Branislav Bezarević - guilty for the premeditated murder of Zoran Đinđić.

References

  1. ^ "Djindjic's killers convicted, sentenced after 3½-year trial" by Igor Jovanovic, Southeast European Times, 24 May 2007, accessed 21 January 2011
  2. ^ Djindjic murder suspect arrested
  3. ^ "Serb police kill Đinđić suspects". BBC News. 2003-03-28. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
  4. ^ Danas - Zoran Đinđić murdered, state of emergency in Serbia, March 13, 2003
  5. ^ UNMIK DPI Foreign Media Monitoring, 26 March 2003
  6. ^ Marathon Djindjic trial
  7. ^ Group Named in Plot on Serbia Chief
  8. ^ BBC News: "Djindjic 'sniper' remains silent"
  9. ^ "Serb police kill Djindjic suspects". BBC. 28 March 2003.
  10. ^ "Serbian court confirms sentences for Djindjic's killers". SETimes.com. December 30, 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
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