Posted on 04/16/2009 8:25:18 PM PDT by Ravnagora
Britain's Foreign Office is warning visitors to Croatia this summer to beware of a threat from organised crime, following a number of assassinations and attacks on prominent figures, reports Matt Prodger.
Irena Scuric shows Matt Prodger the scene where Ivo Pukanic was killed
"We heard a very loud and low noise, something like voooom!"
On the evening of 23 October 2008, Irena Scuric was eating pizza with her daughter in a restaurant less than a minute's walk from the offices of one of Croatia's most popular newspapers, Nacional, when they heard a blast.
"We saw the car, which was burnt," she tells me, pointing at parking bay number 38, the tarmac of which is still pitted with shrapnel scars.
"There was a little bit of smoke around and the doors were open. And then we saw two bodies covered with plastic."
The bodies were those of Ivo Pukanic, Nacional's editor, and its marketing chief Niko Franjic, killed by a bomb planted beneath the car.
Ivo Pukanic was a controversial figure - an outspoken journalist who wrote about organised crime. He had friends in high places, including Croatia's president, and in low places, with close links to one of the country's most notorious gangsters.
Most agree that it was his stories about a Balkan cigarette smuggling operation which cost him his life.
______________________
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Sounds like a mob hit. That would never happen in . . . Chicago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.