An attorney for Robert Matanic, the first defendant in the trial for the murder of Nacional weekly co-owner Ivo Pukanic, said in his closing argument before the Zagreb County Court on Thursday that he expected his client to be acquitted because the Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption (USKOK) had failed to prove any evidence to back its indictment against Pukanic's alleged assassins.
Attorney Hrvoje Korsa was the first legal representative of the six accused in this case to start presenting his closing argument this morning.
Korsa said that USKOK had intentionally changed the statement Matanic gave after the assassination, hoping that he would agree to star witness status.
"In his closing statement, the prosecutor said that all of the defendants could have been given star witness status, including Matanic, but Matanic did not want to admit to being a member of the criminal group," Korsa said, adding that a murder suspect could not be awarded such a status.
However, USKOK disregarded that rule by offering star witness status to Tomislav Marjanovic, who, in his own words, first took part in preparations for the assassination, but then decided to cooperate with USKOK.
"Marjanovic's testimony is full of lies. His credibility must be assessed as a whole, not only in the parts that are unfavourable for the accused," said Korsa.
The attorney said that an analysis by telecommunications experts focusing on the movement of the defendants before and after Pukanic's assassination showed that they had not been following Pukanic.
After Korsa, the defence attorney for the second defendant Luka Matanic started presenting his closing argument. The attorneys for the other defendants were expected to address the court after that.
Pukanic and his business associate Niko 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. Sreten Jocic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Milenko Kuzmanovic, also accused in the case, are on trial in Belgrade.
At the beginning of today's hearing, attorneys representing Franjic's family said they fully supported the prosecution's closing argument presented on Wednesday, which called for giving the accused the highest prison terms of 40 years for Pukanic and Franjic's murder.
The Franjic family claims damages in the amount of three million kuna from the defendants.
