Dragan Paravinja, a truck driver indicted for first degree murder of underage girl Antonia Bilic and two attempted rapes, was sentenced on Friday by the Sibenik County Court to 40 years.
The convict can appeal the ruling.
The announcement of the judgement was open to public, however, the explanation given by Judge Nives Nikolac was held behind the closed doors just as the trial, which commenced on 22 March this year.
As many as 40 witnesses were questioned and video footage about Paravinja's movements on 7 June 2011, the day when Antonia Bilic went missing, were shown during the trial. Bilic went missing after she had entered Paravinja's truck near the southern Croatian town of Drnis. Although a large-scale search for the girl was conducted, her body has not yet been found. Upon his arrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paravinja confessed to Bilic's murder, however, he later claimed that he was forced by the police to admit the crime.
In December 2011, the East Sarajevo District Court sentenced him to two years and ten months in jail for rape committed in 2002. The 44-year old truck driver was also convicted of rape in Serbia where he was given four years and five months in prison.
Antonia Bilic was last seen on Cikola Bridge in Drnis on the morning of June 7 entering a truck driven by the convicted rapist Paravinja. Two weeks after her disappearance, the police located the truck, and found evidence such as hair and blood which confirmed that this 17-year-old girl had been in that vehicle. Immediately, a search was launched to locate Paravinja but he had already fled the country.
Upon his arrest in Bosnia on 26 June 2011 he confessed to the police in Banja Luka that he had strangled the underage girl from the town of Kricke near Drnis and dumped her body into the River Krka. He then denied his confession before the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying his statement was extorted by beatings. The Croatian police combed the Sibenik hinterland for several weeks but did not found the girl's body.
