Pukanic Assassin Milovanovic Arrested In Belgrade

Zeljko Milovanovic aka. Gavra is a suspect in the murder of Nacional weekly co-founder Ivo Pukanic.

Zeljko Milovanovic aka. Gavra, suspected for being involved in the murder of Nacional weekly co-founder Ivo Pukanic and the paper`s marketing director Niko Franjic, was arrested in Belgrade, Serbia, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday.

According to Belgrade media, Milovanovic, who had police departments of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina looking for him, was arrested in the Dorcol neighbourhood. The minister said he was not armed.

Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic were killed on October 23, 2008 in a bomb explosion set up on a scooter parked next to Pukanic`s car.

Former member of the Serbian national security special unit and multiple runaway from prison Zeljko Milovanovic of Doboj was suspected for installing the bomb. He is charged with several felonies in Serbia as well.

Milovanovic: I was in Doboj during the time of the murder

According to the Serbian Blic paper, the project of assassinating Pukanic began in mid-October last year, when Zeljko Milovanovic and Bojan Guduric arrived in Zagreb. Prior to this, cousins Robert and Luka Matanic and Amir Mafalani surveillanced Pukanic and prepared the crime.

- Was it possible for me to have walked and driven freely in Zagreb, although the Croatian police have been looking for me so much? How could I have even crossed the border when Croatia has issued APBs on me? I wonder why the police did not want to check if I was in Zagreb during Pukanic and Pranjic`s murders. It can be easily checked that I was in Doboj - Milovanovic wrote for the Press web site.

Member of Legija`s Unit for special operations

Milovanovic is on Interpol`s APB, as well as the APB of Osijek County Court because of war crimes against civilians during the Serb aggression on Croatia.

Former member of Milorad Ulemek Legija`s unit for special operations supposedly took part in the Delta Bank robbery, as 1,5 million dinar was taken. On two occasions, he managed to escape after being arrested, once from a Belgrade court and the second time from the Kula prison.

He has courts in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Subotica and Osijek looking for him, and is charged, among other things, for murder, robbery, kidnapping and theft. He eluded the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska police ten minutes before they arrived at his apartment in Doboj.

Serbian police arrested Milenko Kuzmanovic on Saturday in Belgrade, who is also suspected on being involved in the Pukanic assassination. In October last year, Kuzmanovic was arrested in Croatia and suspected of introducing explosives from Serbia, used in the assassination and that he enabled Robert and Luka Matanic to escape afterwards.

Milovanovic Arrested As Kuzmanovic Ratted Him Out?