Joca: I Have Been Pulled Into Police-Intel Clash

Sreten Jocic rejected all suspicions he is involved in Pukanic’s murder. He says he has been pulled into police-political games in Croatia.

Sreten Jocic, also known as Joca Amsterdam, rejected all suspicions on Tuesday night that he is involved in the murder of the owner of the Nacional weekly, Ivo Pukanic. He said that he has been pulled into a police-political game in Croatia, report Belgrade’s electronic media.

Jocic is being questioned by Belgrade’s police, and is not seeing the investigating judge as was originally reported by some Belgrade media. He said that there is no evidence that can link him to that murder.

Jocic’s attorney Zdenko Tomanovic, who attended the hearing, said that his client insists that no evidence linking him to involvement in the Pukanic murder exists, because, as he said, Jocic does not have anything to do with it and does not want to explain himself on the basis of rumours.

Tomanovic said that his client has been, without evidence and on the basis of unchecked rumours, “pushed my the Serbian prosecution into a conflict with the police-intelligence structures and underground in Croatia”, burdening him with the most serious crime.

After he was heard in the presence of his attorney and the deputy special prosecutor, Jocic should be brought before the investigating judge before his 48 hour custody runs out on Wednesday at 9pm.

After hearing Jocic, the investigating judge should bring a decision on possibly starting an investigation against the suspect and determining that he be held in custody.

Sreten Jocic has been in police custody for two days after being arrested according to an order by the special attorney’s office, for the suspicion that he is involved in the murder of the Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic.