Bojan Guduric, one of six men indicted for the assassination of Ivo Pukanic, the Nacional weekly's co-owner and reporter and the killing of Niko Franjic as a collateral victim, on Monday pleaded not guilty to all counts in the indictment.
The Zagreb County Court indicts Guduric and the other five defendants -- Robert Matanic, Luka Matanic, Amir Mafalani, Zeljko Milovanovic and Slobodan Djurovic -- of first-degree murder and of conspiracy to kill Pukanic. According to the indictment, this criminal enterprise planned to kill another two persons in Zagreb.
Guduric, who had been out of reach of the Croatian authorities until February 26 when he was extradited by Bosnia and Herzegovina, has since then been represented by a court-appointed attorney. Today he agreed with being represented by the court-appointed attorney Dragan Baltic.
The trial in the Pukanic murder case began before the Zagreb County Court earlier this year with Guduric being on the run. Witt Guduric entering not guilty plea today, the trial formally started anew with the presentation of evidence shown at previous hearings.
A parallel trial is expected to open soon in Belgrade, with the accused Milovanovic, Milenko Kuzmanovic, and Sreten Jocic, who is believed to have paid 1.5 million euros to have Pukanic killed.
Pukanic and Franjic were killed by a bomb planted in Nacional's car park in downtown Zagreb on October 23, 2008.
Guduric, whom Croatian media describes as an explosive devices specialist, was on the run until he surrendered to the police in Banja Luka, northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina in February 2010.
He is also wanted in Serbia for robberies but during extradition proceedings, he consented to his extradition to Croatia.
According to the indictment, Guduric took part in preparations for Pukanic's assassination and he was to have shot Pukanic from a sniper in case of the failure of the activation of the bomb.
The other defendants present at the Zagreb trial also pleaded not guilty.
