ZAGREB, CROATIA – Croatian Police Director Vladimir Faber said on Monday that Zeljko Milovanovic had Serbian citizenship, which is an obstacle for him being extradited to Croatia. But, he added, it is all the same to the Croatian police where he will be tried because irrefutable evidence has been collected that he took part in the assassination of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic.
- We received confirmation from our Serbian colleagues that Milovanovic has Serbian citizenship and that is a formal and legal obstacle for his extradition to Croatia. However, we are not scared of the proceedings wherever they take place because founded suspicion that he committed the crime he is charged with has been irrefutably proven – Faber told the Croatian news agency Hina and added that the evidence was collected legally.
Milovanovic, who is suspected by the Croatian police and State Prosecution that he set up the explosive that killed journalist and co-owner of the “Nacional” weekly, Ivo Pukanic, and his associate, Niko Franjic, in front of the Nacional building in Zagreb last October, was arrested in Belgrade last night after a seven-month search by police forces of all countries of the region of the former Yugoslavia.
Pukanic Assassin Milovanovic Arrested In Belgrade
Faber expressed satisfaction with the arrest and cooperation with Serbian police and recalled that the only other suspect on the large is Bojan Guduric.
- We will complete our work with his arrest – he added.
He did not want to comment on media speculation that Milovanovic was arrested because he was ratted out on by Milenko Kuzmanovic, who had been arrested in Belgrade two days before, also for involvement in the Pukanic murder. Kuzmanovic was arrested after the murder on suspicion that he had brought over from Serbia the explosive that was used to kill Pukanic and Franjic and that after the murder he was to assist the escape of Robert and Luka Matanic, two suspects who were detained in Croatia. But in late October, Kuzmanovic was released due to a lack of evidence. Some media are speculating that he has become a repentant witness.
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