The trial for the murder of the Nacional weekly's co-owner, Ivo Pukanic, continued before the Zagreb County Court on Monday with protected witness Dusan Erceg testifying about the first defendant Robert Matanic's statement that he would kill Pukanic.
Erceg, who was serving a prion term in Sremska Mitrovica for fraud at the same time when Matanic was detained in that penitentiary in Serbia, gave his testimony in the courtroom in Zagreb with no cameras allowed.
This witness, placed in a protected witness programme, said that after the Nacional weekly had published an article about murders in Bulgaria, which negatively portrayed him, Matanic said that he would kill Pukanic.
Erceg said that he heard Matanic and some other detained inmates saying that Pukanic was making problems to some respectable people in Montenegro.
The witness said that in the Sremska Mitrovica prison he used to meet Matanic during walks in the prison yard and in bath facilities, describing their relationships as superficial acquaintanceship.
The witness said that a man called "Kardinal" had visited Matanic in the prison, but he added that this was not Slobodan Djurovic, one of other men indicted for the Pukanic murder.
Testimonies of other witnesses implicated that "Kardinal" was Djurovic.
According to the indictment issued by the Croatian agency for investigating corruption and organised crime (USKOK), Djurovic served as a link between those who contracted the murder and assassins.
Sreten Jocic also known as Joca Amsterdam is indicted for having paid EUR 1.5 million for the October 2008 assassination in Zagreb.
Robert Matanic, Luka Matanic, Amir Mafalani, Slobodan Djurovic and Bojan Guduric are standing trial for this murder in Zagreb.
A parallel trial with Jocic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Milenko Kuzmanovic in the dock is being held in Belgrade
