A business partner of one of the defendants for the murder of Nacional weekly co-owner Ivo Pukanic, Goran Simovic, said on Wednesday that the defendant, Slobodan Djurovic, had never mentioned his close friend Sreten Jocic aka Joca Amsterdam who, under the indictment filed by the Croatian anti-corruption agency USKOK, paid EUR 1.5 million for the murder.
Although the indictment alleges that Djurovic was the link between the killers and Jocic, Djurovic never mentioned the name of anyone accused for Pukanic's murder nor witnesses Tomislav Marjanovic and Ratko Knezevic, Simovic told the Zagreb County Court, adding that Djurovic had never mentioned Nacional, Pukanic or a tobacco cartel either.
The witness said he heard that Jocic was Djurovic's close friend from others and that although he spent nearly every day with Djurovic as his business partner, they met Jocic only twice.
Simovic said he met Djurovic on the day of his arrest for brunch, when Djurovic told him that he must go to the Croatian border and that he would return in the afternoon.
Asked about Djurovic's trips to Croatia, Simovic said his business partner went to the border but never travelled to Zagreb. This was contrary to what Simovic said during investigation.
The witness said he and Djurovic became business partners in 2007 and that Djurovic was known as a wealthy entrepreneur. On several occasions, they invested tens of millions of euros in construction projects in Serbia and Montenegro, where Djurovic travelled often and used to spend a week a time, he added.
Simovic said he found it unbelievable that Djurovic was being associated with the Pukanic murder, adding Djurovic had an excellent relationship with his workers.
First defendant Robert Matanic asked Simovic if he remembered whether Djurovic told him the day he was arrested that they would not meet in the afternoon after all.
Djurovic was arrested at a petrol station near the Bajakovo border crossing while he was with Matanic and his cousin Luka Matanic, another defendant in the case.
The trial resumes tomorrow, when Ratko Knezevic is to take the stand. He is an entrepreneur from Montenegro who accused on a number of occasions the so-called tobacco cartel and his close friend Milo Djukanovic, the Montenegrin prime minister, of Pukanic's death.
Pukanic and his business partner Niko Franjic were killed in a bomb explosion in downtown Zagreb in October 2008.
