Testifying in the Pukanic murder trial, Knezevic said the tobacco cartel started threatening Pukanic after the first articles in former Croatian daily Republika on organised cigarette smuggling under the aegis of Montenegro.

The articles continued in Nacional, followed by new threats as well as the first plans for an assassination which the secret services of several countries thwarted in 2002, said Knezevic.

The witness recalled Pukanic telling him he that he was offered money to stop writing, first two million and then five million euros. "That's the mob. First it threatens, then bribes and then kills," said Knezevic.

Apart from people close to him, Subotic himself allegedly made threats on two occasions over the phone, first politely and then directly.

"When I said that I couldn't influence Pukanic, he stopped being polite and said: I killed many people, I will kill you too," the witness said.

He added that after several years, one could conclude that Pukanic's articles on the tobacco cartel were extremely precise. "Nothing was hearsay. The articles contained exact names of companies, aircraft registration, pilots' names, and amounts of money made through cigarette smuggling. He discovered an octopus that was growing all around us and he did it through brilliant investigation."

Knezevic said that based on Pukanic's findings, European investigators recognised his close friend, Montenegrin PM Djukanovic, as the tobacco cartel boss who, according to the witness, was bringing money into a parallel state budget that was under his direct influence. That budget served, among other things, to buy votes in elections at 50-100 euros per vote, he added.

Knezevic said Pukanic made those accusations before investigators in Bari, Italy who were secretly probing the tobacco cartel. The investigation resulted in an indictment and when Djukanovic testified at a Bari court as a witness, he "could see for the first time Pukanic's testimony and the incentive the Nacional articles gave to the uncovering of the entire case," he added. The first failed attempt at Pukanovic's life was made in Zagreb only 10 days later.

"Apart from the victims killed in the streets of Belgrade, Zagreb and Podgorica, the tobacco cartel's victims are the citizens of Montenegro," Knezevic said, adding the same channels were now being used to smuggle cocaine.

Knezevic said in the media several times that the tobacco cartel was behind Pukanic's murder. Last October, he repeated that at the Zagreb County Court, where six men are on trial for the murder of Pukanic.

The prosecution argues that the first murder of a Croatian reporter since the end of the war of independence in 1995 was organised to prevent him from writing about the activities and links between a number of crime gangs in the Balkans.

The defence, however, claims that Knezevic did not have immediate knowledge of the murder in Zagreb in October 2008 and that his testimony is aimed at self-promotion.