Free Republic

BELGRADE: A notorious paramilitary leader suspected of masterminding the assassination of Serbia's prime minister last year has surrendered to police. Milorad Lukovic, known by his nickname "Legija", surrendered in Belgrade on Sunday night, Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said. He had been on the run since March 12, 2003, when reformist prime minister Zoran Djindjic was gunned down by a sniper in front of his Belgrade government headquarters. Lukovic, who led a feared paramilitary unit loyal to then president Slobodan Milosevic during the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, is the prime suspect in the slaying. He has been...

Serbian police have arrested a senior special police officer on suspicion of assassinating Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Mr Djindjic's successor as prime minister, Zoran Zivkovic, said the man was a deputy commander of the Unit for Special Operations (JSO), Zvezdan Jovanovic, aged 38. "Police have identified the person who, there are good grounds to suspect, fired at late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic," he told a news conference. "He was arrested yesterday and has been detained for further investigation." Mr Djindjic was killed by a sniper's bullet outside government buildings in Belgrade on 12 March. Just hours after the killing,...