Joca Amsterdam Arrested For Ivo Pukanic Murder

Attorney Zdenko Tomanovic confirmed the information regarding Jocic`s arrest, adding that his villa in Dedinje is currently being searched.

Sreten Jocic aka. Joca Amsterdam, was arrested in Belgrade, Serbia Monday for the murder of Nacional weekly co-founder Ivo Pukanic as a result of a joint operation of the police and prosecution. The news was confirmed by Jocic`s attorney Zdenko Tomanovic.

- His home in Dedinje is currently being searched, which started nearly two hours ago. I don`t know under which circumstances he was arrested. I am heading out to my office to get all the documents and I will see what is going on precisely – Tomanovic told us over the telephone.

We found out from unofficial sources close to Serbian police that Sreten Jocic was arrested in Slobodan Milosevic`s home in Dedinje, Tolstoy Street, which has been his place of residence for a few years. The police will keep him in custody for 48 hours, which is the legal limit, and afterwards will see whether Jocic will be brought before an investigative judge or will be released. Clearly, Croatian police has provided convincing documents, because, according to our source, Jocic is officially a suspect in the Ivo Pukanic assassination case, which was confirmed by Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

Mystery witness accuses Jocic

Last week, Croatian media reported of a new witness in the Pukanic case, who blamed Sreten Jocic for organising the assassination which killed Nacional weekly co-founder Ivo Pukanic and the paper`s marketing director Niko Franjic. The mystery witness shared his information with the investigators, stating that Jocic hired Slobodan Djurovic and Robert Matanic for the murder, who have supposedly been planning the assassination for months.

Supposedly, the mastermind of the operation was Djurovic, which has been a rumour for months. Djurovic and Jocic are close, they are even best men, while Matanic killed after Jocic`s orders in Bulgaria, the mystery witness said.

Burned bodies of Jocic`s associates found

A case which might be connected with the current operation of the Serbian police in Dedinje occurred at the end of last week. Two burnt bodies were found in a jeep at a field in Dobanovci last Thursday. It was determined that the bodies were that of Goran Maric and Ilija Novovic, who were last seen on Sunday. Maric was Andrija Draskovic`s witness at a trial for the murder of Surcin Clan member Zvonko Plecic Pleca, while those who are familiar with events of the Belgrade underground say he was frequently seen in the company of Sreten Jocic over the past three years.

It is true that the arrested man was Joca`s best man, but what does this prove? Joca is convinced that Croatia is trying, at any cost, forcedly, to involve someone from Serbia in the Pukanic murder. Joca says the statement of the judge from Bari, who dealed with the smuggling of cigarettes, which Pukanic wrote about, should be carefully read and then one has to think for whom was this man a possible threat. Surely not for Joca!

Jocic`s mediator in October 2008

The greatest mystery of this elimination is the contact between Maric and Novovic, seeing how Maric was close to Draskovic and Jocic, while Novovic was a member of Luka Bojovic`s clan. The two of them were supposed to have been at odds, because, according to information from the underground, Bojovic clashed with Draskovic and Jocic.