SIBENIK, CROATIA - Former boxer, sentenced for murder, Stipe Buzov (51) from Split, was killed on Saturday in a diving accident which took place off Sibenik at 17:45 hours, between the island of Oblik and cape Ostrica, some 150 metres off-shore, where he was diving with an underwater gun, the Slobodna Dalmacija daily writes.

According to the paper, while Buzov was surfacing up, a speedboat hit him at the speed of 18 knots, driven by 52-year-old Zoran Knezevic, head of the Benetton boutique chains in Sibenik. Due to the impact of the rush and severe head injuries, nearly to the point of decapitation, the injured diver died instantaneously.

Blood alcohol level zero

Croatian Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure announced that the injured diver did not have the proscribed buoy. The driver underwent a blood alcohol level test, which was negative and charges will be raised against him at the Sibenik County State Attorney`s Office for causing an accident from manslaughter.

Stipe Buzov, a Croatian Homeland War of independence defender and former boxer, was sentenced in November 2001 to 10 years in prison for the murder of Neven Jankov, whom he punched in the head several times in 1991, inflicting lethal injuries. Buzov appealed and the Supreme Court adopted his appeal, returning his case for a re-trial before an altered court council. He spent two years in custody and was awaiting new trial out of custody.