Zecevic and Ivana – Petrac’s Messages from Prison

People at the prison, in which Hrvoje Petrac’s prison regime has been made more strict, are speculating that the two murders are messages.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – As if in some screen play in a mafia film, the daughter of one of the most renowned Croatian lawyers was liquidated with two shots in the head in front of her block of flats in downtown Zagreb.

Ivana Hodak did not live to see the ambulance arrive. Two shots in the throat and side of the head from a gun that most probably had a silencer caused instantaneous death. The murder was carried out in line with the classical method using an ambush.

The killer waited in the entrance of the block of flats in the centre of Zagreb. Although, according to the neighbours, the entrance doors are always locked, he found a way to enter and find an ideal position from which he would kill the 26-year-old daughter of attorney Zvonimir Hodak and Ljerka Mintas-Hodak who was in a relationship with the so-called mafia lawyer, Ljubo Pavasovic-Viskovic.

Ivana died on the hands of her mother who arrived at the scene first.

Former boyfriend questioned by police 

Not even an hour had gone by since the murder and the media already began the usual search for those responsible for the liquidation which was evidently not a crime of passion or a crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just the opposite.

The professional murder carried out, which will be soon revealed, without any concrete evidence, was definitely conducted with a message.

Several people were called in to the police station for questioning, including lawyer Pavasovic-Vickovic, Ivana Hodak’s current boyfriend, Ivor Vucelic, her former boyfriend, as well as former boyfriends Davor Bienenfeld and Danijel Stern.

Petrac transferred for suspicion of organising the killing?

It was almost unbelievable to hear that immediately after the murder of Ivana Hodak, Hrvoje Petrac had urgently been transferred to the closed-off section of the Lepoglava prison for, as was explained, security reasons. In an attempt to explain this sudden transfer, attorney Rajko Mlinaric said this was most probably a security assessment of the prison management made based on previous antagonism between Petrac and retired Croatian general Vladimir Zagorec. But as we found out among the inmates of Lepoglava, there are speculations that Petrac had been transferred for suspicion that he organised the murder of Ivana Hodak. The same sources said they suspected that Petrac was also responsible for the murder of Davor Zecevic Zec last December when Zec had a free weekend out of Lepoglava. According to stories from the prison, Zecevic was on Petrac’s bad side because he intended to disclose the crimes of Nikica Jelavic and several other people connected to Petrac.

Messages from Lepoglava? 

Although this is just a speculation, Ivana’s murder would have sent messages to two addresses. The first would have been sent to Vladimir Zagorec. The murder of his lawyer’s daughter would be a warning to the general whom Petrac considers his worst enemy, which he admitted to in his letters in which he wrote that the kidnapping of his son was not the worst that could happen to him. Petrac could have also been concerned with the fact that Ivana Hodak was in a relationship with his lawyer Pavasovic-Viskovic. According to attorney Hodak, for fear that his lawyer does not divulge certain information and documents to his new love, Petrac could have organised the murder from Lepoglava prison. This is not impossible, considering the fact that certain inmates all over the world, and that is a fact all through history, even after imprisonment, hold the strings of their business, using good connections.

On the other hand, such an act would also be a message to attorney Pavasovic-Viskovic to take care whom he associated with, especially when it comes to arch enemies. Pavasovic-Viskovic is known for defending Novica petrac, Hrvoje Petrac’s son, in the case of kidnapping of Vladimir Zagorec’s son, and for representing Hrvoje Petrac in a case when he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for blackmail.

A 300 million kuna job fell through 

But the cause of this cold-blooded murder which shocked the whole of Croatia and gave us the impression that we are living in a new sequel of the movie “Godfather”, does not have to be connected with the Petrac-Zagorec story.

According to the Nacional weekly, the relationship between Ivana Hodak and Ljubo Pavasovic-Viskovic jeopardised plans for the taking over of Zagorec’s construction projects. Her former boyfriend, Ivor Vucelic, her father, Zvonimir Hodak and composer Tonci Huljic, according to the weekly, had a deal to take over Zagorec’s business worth 300 million kuna. When Ivana suddenly fell in love with Ljubo Pavasovic-Viskovic this summer, the whole deal allegedly fell through.