The deputy head of the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK), Slobodan Sasic, said on Wednesday in his closing argument at a Zagreb County Court trial for the assassination of Ivo Pukanic and his business associate Niko Franjic that charges pressed against the defendants had been substantiated beyond doubt.
According to USKOK claims, Sreten Jocic also known as Joca Amsterdam organised a criminal group with the aim to kill Pukanic, co-owner and reporter of Nacional weekly.
Jocic, a Serbian businessman, was aided in this by his close friend Slobodan Djurovic, who was the main link between him and Robert Matanic and his accomplices.
Pukanic and Franjic were killed in the explosion of a bomb attached to a scooter parked by Pukanic's car outside the Nacional building in Zagreb on 23 October 2008. Franjic was a collateral victim.
Robert Matanic, Luka Matanic, Amir Mafalani, Slobodan Djurovic and Bojan Guduric are standing trial for this crime in Zagreb.
Jocic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Milenko Kuzmanovic are standing trial in Belgrade.
The prosecutor said today that Pukanic's assassination had been organised with an aim to prevent him from publishing what he knew about several criminal groups in Croatia and neighbouring countries.
The prosecutor, however, fell short of saying who might be the mastermind of the crime and who stood behind Jocic, who paid EUR 1.5 million for Pukanic's murder.
