A series of witness testimonies scheduled for February in a Belgrade trial of three men charged with involvement in the murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic and his business associate Niko Franjic ended on Friday with the questioning of Slobodan Djurovic, who was convicted in Croatia for this crime.
The presentation of evidence in the trial is expected to continue in late March.
Djurovic's testimony at the Belgrade High Court started on Thursday, with him testifying via video link from the Zagreb County Court. Speaking of his close friend Sreten Jocic, who is the first defendant in the Belgrade trial, Djurovic said that he could not have been involved in the crime he was charged with.
Djurovic previously denied his own involvement in the crime, claiming that Tomislav Marjanovic, who was questioned before him, had falsely accused him of involvement in Pukanic's murder.
In his testimony today, Djurovic said that in 2009 Marjanovic had asked from him EUR 300,000 to change his statement regarding Pukanic's murder.
Djurovic, who last November was sentenced to 15 years in prison on the charges that he was the connection between the murderers and Sreten Jocic, aka Joca Amsterdam, who allegedly paid EUR 1.5 million to have Pukanic killed, said today that Marjanovic had contacted his attorneys via email and mobile phone asking for money in exchange for changing his statement.
Marjanovic, who was questioned as the main witness before a Zagreb court in a trial of the Zagreb members of the group charged with killing Pukanic, told the Belgrade court earlier that Djurovic was the middleman between Jocic and the Zagreb part of the group, to which Marjanovic belonged before he withdrew.
After Djurovic's testimony, the court also heard the testimony of Ive Bitunjac who rented his flat to one of the members of the Zagreb group, who said that he had put out an ad to rent the apartment and that he had no knowledge of the crime or its perpetrators.
Sreten Jocic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Milenko Kuzmanovic, who are being tried in Belgrade, are accused of planting an explosive device on a moped in Zagreb in October 2008, which was then parked by Pukanic's car in the parking lot of his media company Nacional, for a reward of a minimum EUR 1.5 million.
The Zagreb County Court on 3 November 2010 convicted six men of the murder, including Milovanovic, who was tried in his absence.
Robert Matanic, accused of assembling the criminal group, was given 33 years in jail, and his cousin Luka and their friend Amir Mafalani were each given 16 years' imprisonment as accessories. Milovanovic, accused of activating the explosive device, was sentenced to 40 years in jail, while Bojan Guduric, who was to have shot Pukanic had the explosive failed, was given a 30-year sentence. Slobodan Djurovic was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as the connection to Sreten Jocic, who allegedly paid EUR 1.5 million to have Pukanic killed.
