Croatia's Supreme Court on Monday began a three-day session on the Zagreb County Court's guilty verdict in the case of the assassination of the Nacional weekly newspaper's co-owner Ivo Pukanic.
Under the November 2010 ruling, six men, found guilty of murder of Pukanic and his business associate Niko Franjic, were sentenced to a total of 150 years' imprisonment. Robert Matanic, charged with putting together a criminal group, was sentenced to 33 years in jail. His cousin Luka Matanic and their friend Amir Mafalani were each given 16 years. Zeljko Milovanovic, who committed the murder by activating a device that blew up Pukanic, was sentenced in absentia to 40 years in jail, while Bojan Guduric, who was to have shot Pukanic if the explosive misfired, was given 30 years. Slobodan Djurovic was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for being the killers' connection with Sreten Jocic, who allegedly paid EUR 1.5 million to have Pukanic killed. Jocic is on trial in this case in Belgrade, together with Milovanovic and Zoran Kuzmanovic.
Apart from killing Pukanic and Franjic, the accused were also charged with endangering other people's lives and causing major material damage with the explosion in front of Nacional's building in downtown Zagreb on 23 October 2008. Pukanic and Franjic were killed in the blast of an explosion device set under a scooter parked beside Pukanjic's car.
Both the defence teams and the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) that was the prosecutor in this case, appealed the ruling.
USKOK appealed against the trial chamber's decision to drop a count regarding the suspicion that the assassination was committed by the perpetrators who formed a criminal joint enterprise that also planned to kill businessman Hrvoje Petrac and his son Novica.
The county court also dismissed the prosecution's explanation that Pukanic was killed so that he would not write about business dealings of criminal gangs connected with a tobacco mafia group.
During the ongoing session, the reporting judge will acquaint the Supreme Court's panel of judges about the important facts from the nine-month-long trial and the County Court's ruling an as well as from the appeals. In attendance will be lawyers, prosecutors and two defendants.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its verdict in this case in one month's time.
