Serbian Court Convicts Prime Minister Djindjic’s Assassins

On March 12, 2003, the pro-Western Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, was getting out of his car in Belgrade when a sniper shot and killed him. As Judge Nata Mesarevic said this week, “It was not an ordinary murder, it was a political murder with the aim of destabilizing the state.” Judge Mesarevic spoke at the end of a trial that convicted several men of conspiracy and murder. As the trial began, this journal said that this case would be the litmus test for Serbian justice. It looks like Serbia passed the test.

The motive was the deportation of Slobodan Milosevic to face war crimes charges in the Hague and the threat that others would be dealt with in a similar fashion. In addition, Mr. Djindjic’s policy of fighting organized crime upset a powerful and well-armed segment of Serbian society. In the end, Reuters reported, “Former special police commander Milorad ‘Legija’ Ulemek, once a Foreign Legionnaire, and his deputy Zvezdan Jovanovic were convicted of conspiring with fellow paramilitary and underworld figures to carry out the shooting.” Judge Mesarevic stated, “It was all prepared by Ulemek. Jovanovic fired the shots.”

Messrs. Ulemek and Jovanovic received the maximum penalty allowed, 40-years. Four of their convicted accomplices got 35 years, another five got 30 years, and one received 8 years. Five of the 12 were judged in absentia since they remain at large. Lawyers for the defendants will appeal the sentences. In what Serbia’s media called the “trial of the century” (certainly bigger than O.J. Simpson’s), two witnesses were murdered, and one judge quit amid death threats.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who split with Mr. Djindjic over the Milosevic extradition, said the assassination was a “very hard blow for Serbia.” However, he noted, “The end of the proceedings, the ruling and the delivery of justice . . . carries the message that the state and the hand of the law will reach all those who have committed crimes.” One might argue the fairness of the trial; however, Mr. Jovanovic wrote a confession that read in part, “I liquidated Zoran Djindjic personally. I was not interested in the money. I did it to prevent extradition of our people to The Hague.” It appears that justice has been served in as far as it can be.

Nevertheless, as with an assassination in Dallas in 1963, there are those who say there was a much bigger conspiracy. Vladan Batic, a justice minister in the Djindjic government, said “The executioners have been sentenced. Now comes the hard part, to find the instigators of this assassination.” He added, “I believe the people who ordered the murder may be found among the anti-Hague lobby, the [Milosevic-era] tycoons and politicians.” He may well be right, and if he can prove it, Serbia faces another challenge. Thus far, though, one is pleased to know that Serbia’s judicial system acted as it should have done.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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