Two men suspected of assaulting and attempting to murder journalist Dusan Miljus and entrepreneur Josip Galinec denied their involvement in the two crimes before a Zagreb County Court investigating judge on Friday and were remanded in 24-hour custody, during which time the state attorney's office has to decide whether to request an investigation and month-long custody.
Djordje Vuletic, 48, a former police officer and one of the accused in a high-profile late 1990s criminal organisation trial, and Darko Dakic, 32, denied before judge Boris Ivancic the police's suspicions that they brutally assaulted Galinec in September 2008. Dakic also denied responsibility for an assault on Jutarnji List reporter Miljus in June that year.
Police said that an as yet unidentified man had also been involved in the attacks.
The judge set 24-hour custody for Vuletic and Dakic to prevent them from tampering with witnesses and repeating the crime. He said the prosecution would decide whether to request an investigation on Monday.
Vuletic and Dakic are suspected as perpetrators of attempted murder. Police have still not found out who hired them and hope to do so as part of Operation Shock 3, one of the more comprehensive operations against organised crime in recent years. Vuletic and Dakic were arrested in the operation on Wednesday alongside two other men, who were released after questioning.
According to unconfirmed reports, a number of persons have been arrested over the past three days as part of Shock 3, and police are still searching for some, mainly people who have been linked to the Zagreb criminal underworld for years. There is speculation that police are also looking for Nikica Jelavic, Zoran Pripuz, Velibor Momcilovic and Hrvoje Gasparinec, who were accused in the criminal organisation trial in the late 1990s. It was not immediately clear if the persons the police are looking for are suspects or are just wanted for questioning.
The media have referred to Operation Shock 3 as a strike against the Zagreb underworld, speculating that in preparing the operation, the police interviewed about 100 people and that everything began with the arrest of several Macedonians in Rijeka for kidnapping. They were allegedly linked to the Zagreb criminal underworld and its attempt to reinforce its ties with the Bulgarian mafia.
Interior Ministry spokesman Krunoslav Borovec told reporters the assaults on Miljus and Galinec were not being linked with the beating of Igor Radjenovic, former director of the Zagrabacke Ceste road management company.
He refuted media reports that Jelavic, Pripuz, Momcilovic and Gasparinec were on the run.
