Joca Amsterdam Could Be Tried in Croatia - Current Events - Croatia

We reveal that Sreten Jocic’s arrest and the cooperation between countries in the region could shake the foundation of the constitution.

The arrest of Sreten Jocic, known under the pseudonym Joca Amsterdam, was carried out on Monday afternoon in a carefully planned operation by the anti-terrorist units of Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. At 2pm the police entered Joca’s villa in Dedinja, in which Slobodan Milosevic’s family once stayed. Jocic has been arrested, and according to current information there is an order to hold him in custody for 48 hours. Members of the Serbian police spent five hours searching his house.

Milenko Kuzmanovic arrested?

However, the whole operation was not only based in Serbia, but is the result of the cooperation between the Croatian USKOK (Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime) and the State Attorney’s Office, the Serbian special attorney’s office for organized crime. As we unofficially find out, the target of the operation was not Jocic exclusively, but Milenko Kuzmanovic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Bojan Guduric as well. The Serbian police are searching for the mentioned four due to the involvement in the murders of Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic, and it is suspected that Milovanovic and Guduric are linked to the crime in Dobanovci, where the bodies of Goran Maric and Ilija Novovic were found burned, people who were closely linked to Jocic.

Cane ordered murder?
Last week the Croatian media wrote about a new witness that has appeared in the Pukanic case, who has placed the blame for the murders of Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic on Sreten Jocic. The secret witness shared his knowledge with the investigators of the Pukanic and Franjic murder, according to which Jocic was hired by Slobodan Djurovic and Robert Matanic for the murder. Djorovic and Matanic allegedly planned the execution of the assassination for months. According to Jutarnji List, the witness revealed that Stanko Subotic Cane ordered Pukanic’s murder from Joca Amsterdam.

Same case in two courts

The arrest of Sreten Jocic for the suspicion of involvement in the organized crime group that liquidated Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic, opens the doors to a possible legal precedent, more precisely the first such case when processing organized crime in the region is in question. According to our information from reliable sources in the Serbian police, and from the too of Croatia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the court proceeding in the Pukanic case will be led in Serbia and Croatia. So, according to unofficial information, the group that Sreten Jocic, Milenko Kuzmanovic, Zeljko Milovanovic and BOjan Guduric are in will be processed by the Serbian justice system. The group that is already in Croatia’s Remetinec prison, Robert Matanic, Luka Matanic, Amir Mafalani and Slobodan Djurovic will be tried in Croatia. However, a great enigma will be the processing of Stanko Subotic Cane, for which the witness says, according to Jutarnji List, ordered the murder of Pukanic via Joca Amsterdam. For now, nothing official from any police in the region has been said about Cane’s responsibility in the “bomb in Nacional” case. However, if any country decides to try him, the first obstacle that they could face is his dual citizenship. Besides Serbian citizenship, Stanko Subotic has had Croatian citizenship since 1999, which he gained at the recommendation of Ljubo Cesic Rojs.

“Discussing changing the constitution”

Such circumstances could change if the claims of our Croatian source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs is correct, who reveals an even closer cooperation between the countries in the region, which would shake the foundation of the Croatian constitution. The cooperation in the arrest operation of Sreten Jocic, carried out in cooperation between the heads of the state attorney’s offices, and the USKOK organizations of Croatia and Serbia, has given a good hint at how future cooperation between countries will look like.

“We have announced to Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro that Croatia is changing its constitution, and besides changing it for the needs of entering the European Union, other countries are not excluded when organized crime and corruption are in question. We are already discussion changing the constitution at the level where Croatia will be able to extradite its own and foreign citizens when organized crime is in question, and we expect the same from the mentioned countries. So it is not excluded that the entire Pukanic case will be led in Croatia, if the procedure presents a problem at the moment in Serbia. In short, we are travelling on multiple paths to the same solution. However, for now it is certain that the procedure will start in Serbia and Croatia” said the source from the ministry.