During a trial before the Belgrade High Court for the assassination of Ivo Pukanic, a Croatian journalist and the co-owner of Nacional weekly, and his business associate Niko Franjic, defendant Sreten Jocic said on Friday that those two men were killed due to "the current developments in Croatia" and also implicated the Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in this crime.
Jocic said that he had already received a summons to testify in the Hypo bank case in Austria.
He also proposed to the Belgrade court that the ownership structure in Nacional weekly in Croatia should be analysed in these court proceedings.
This controversial Serbian businessman claimed that Hypo Alpe Adria bought Nacional from Pukanic and that Pukanic and Franjic lost their lives "due to the current developments in Croatia".
Addressing the court, Jocic said among other things that the former Croatian president and prime minister, Stjepan Mesic and Ivo Sanader respectively, were striking a partnership to set up a new political party.
Jocic is believed to have paid EUR 1.5 million for organising Pukanic's assassination.
He, Zeljko Milovanovic and Milenko Kuzmanovic are standing trial for this crime in Belgrade.
Pukanic and Franjic were killed in the explosion of a bomb attached to a scooter parked by Pukanic's car outside the Nacional building in Zagreb on 23 October 2008. Franjic was a collateral victim.
Robert Matanic, Luka Matanic, Amir Mafalani, Slobodan Djurovic and Bojan Guduric are standing trial for this crime in Zagreb.
