Luka Matanic, the second defendant in the trial for the murder of the Nacional weekly's co-owner Ivo Pukanic and his business associate Niko Franjic, on Tuesday reiterated that he had not been in any way connected with the crime he was charged with.
Presenting his defence before the Zagreb County Court, Luka Matanic on Tuesday accused the police of being brutal when they arrested him and when they tried to make him cooperate with them.
The second defendant said that on the day of journalist Pukanic's murder he had been in Brezovica, outside, Zagreb, where he had been working as an excavator operator.
He went on to say that he had driven another defendant Zeljko Milovanovic in his car to a filling station in Ivanic Grad, east of Zagreb, later in the day after the explosion in which Pukanic and Franjic died.
Luka Matanic reiterated that he had not been engaged in monitoring the victim or in preparations for the assassination.
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, the first defendant in this case, on Monday said that -- Luka Matanic and Amir Mafalani -- were arrested and accused of this crime only because they were his cousin and his friend.
In the continuation of today's trial in Zagreb, Amir Mafalani is expected to present his defence.
Zeljko Milovanovic is standing trial in Belgrade as Pukanic's assassin.
