PRINCIPAL BEHIND THE MURDER Sreten Jocic offered a defence to the investigating judge which investigators have established was false On Monday the State Attorney's Office raised its indictment against those who took part in the assassination of Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic. The indictment was written over the past few weeks and reveals new, until now unknown details concerning this monstrous crime. It contains new information about how Slobodan Durovic participated in the assassination, and how Sreten Jocic, aka Joca Amsterdam, tried before an investigating judge to defend himself from charges that he was one of the principals and financiers behind the assassination.

The indictment confirms the theory that the assassination was planned in Montenegro's Budva, and it is possible that a part of the monetary reward to the assassins was paid out in Budva. In February of 2009 it was discovered that 780,760 euro was paid into the account of Slobodan Durovic at the Crnogorska Komercijalna Bank on 2 October 2008, 21 days ahead of the assassination of Ivo Pukanic.

It is now suspected that this may have been part of the money that came from the principals behind the assassination. In the indictment it is precisely reconstructed that Slobodan Durovic and Robert Matanic were in Montenegro together in late September of 2008. This is revealed by their communications by phone, SMS welcome messages to Montenegro Durovic received on his iPhone on 24 September 2008, and by the fact that Matanic entered Montenegro from Croatia at 00:26 hours on 27 September 2008 in a Volkswagen bearing KC 963-DT licence plates, and left Montenegro two days later, at 00:02 hours on 29 September, at the same border crossing.

In its introduction the indictment also presents a definite confirmation that Ivo Pukanic came to grief because of his courage as a journalist. The indictment opens stating that the assassination of Ivo Pukanic was planned by Slobodan Durovic on orders from Sreten Jocic for a monetary award of 1.5 million euro, "in order to thwart Pukanic making public his discoveries as a journalist concerning the activities of several crime rings in the area and their mutual interconnection."

The indictment is particularly devastating for Slobodan Durovic. On 22 December 2008 Robert Matanic told the competent national authorities who might be ultimately behind the assassination of Ivo Pukanic. He then stated that the murder was coordinated and financed by Slobodan Durovic. Matanic related that he had understood in conversation with Durovic that the murder of Pukanic had been ordered by Stanko Subotic Cane. Durovic had told him that Stanko Subotic would like to meet with him and hire him for the murder at the price of 300 to 500 thousand euro. Matanic told the police that Durovic had told him then that if he agreed that he would be the only one with the contract, and that the collaboration with Zeljko Milovanovic and Bojan Guduric would be called off.SLOBODAN DUROVIC is charged of having financed the operation and procured equipment on behalf of the principals

The indictment reveals that the criminal organisation that took part in the assassination of Pukanic started gathering back in 2002, when it was involved in the sale of small quantities of drugs, weapons, extortion and distributing counterfeit money. It states that the preparations for the assassination of Pukanic started in the apartment on No. 10 Gomboseva Street in Zagreb. Zeljko Milovanovic and Bojan Guduric were there as early as in May of 2008, while Slobodan Durovic met with Robert Matanic for the first time in connection with the matter at the Spacva roadside rest station on 26 June 2008.

The State Attorney's Office has meticulously reconstructed what each of the indictee's role was in the assassination. Robert Matanic was responsible for coordinating the activities of the other members of the criminal organisation, Luka Matanic for the organisation of the flight of Zeljko Milovanovic after the assassination had been carried out, Amir Mafalani for the procurement of technical equipment required for tailing and photography, Zeljko Milovanovic for the procurement and instalment of an explosive device, Bojan Guduric for the organisation of the accommodation of those who would carry out the actual assassination near the site of the hit and to make good the assassination if the explosive failed with a sniper rifle, while Slobodan Durovic financed the procurement of equipment and oversaw the preparations and execution of the assassination on behalf of the principal, Sreten Jocic.

They killed Ivo Pukanic using an explosive they placed in the motorcycle helmet compartment of a Peugeot Jet Force scooter. The explosive device consisted of a mixture of high-brisance military TNT and RDX explosives, reinforced with parts of steel rebar netting for increased deadliness. It is estimated that the scooter contained upwards of 1.5 kg of TNT, together with a GPS application device, and that the bomb was remote activated. This quantity of explosive could have killed anyone in an open space at a distance of up to 50 metres. The indictment also provides a statement given to the police by Robert Matanic, in which he tried to defend himself with lies to the effect that he did not know that Milovanovic and Guduric were working on the organisation of the assassination of Pukanic.

AMIR MAFALANI is charged of having procured the technical equipment required to tail and photograph Pukanic Robert Matanic had already then admitted that they had been in contact, and that Luka Matanic had assisted Milovanovic in making good his flight following the assassination. In his statement to the police Amir Mafalani, on the other hand, also fingered Robert Matanic among the participants in the assassination, along with Luka Matanic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Bojan Guduric. Slobodan Durovic also lied in his statement, but these lies were later laid bare.

Some of these fabrications were laid bare thanks to data provided by the national data system managing the national borders. From this data, for example, the coincidence of Durovic's and Guduric's visits to Croatia can be established.

Guduric's first entry to Croatia was recorded on 16 June 2008 when he arrived by bus at the Stara Gradiska border crossing, while Durovic entered Croatia that same day by car with the licence plates BG 873 046. On the other hand, the accused were recognised by some witnesses. Luka Matanic and Amir Mafalani were recognised by a female witness on the parking lot of No. 3 Palmoticeva Street, when they cased the location at which they would later take the life of Pukanic. 10 photos were found of Zeljko Milovanovic holding weapons, including an FAL brand automatic rifle with a foldable stock with the bolt handle wrapped in red tape.

This rifle was found in the possession of Dario Anic, who had concealed the weapon in his house in Lekenik municipality. Dario Anic had an arsenal of various weaponry concealed at this location, several airplane tickets made out to Robert Matanic, ammunition and various equipment. DNA from Robert Matanic, Zeljko Milovanovic and Dario Anic was found on the weapon. Anic is also the person who lent the apartment he had rented at No. 10 Gomboseva Street to the assassins, and he is said to be very similar to the person from the photofit made after the first attempt on Ivo Pukanic's life on 9 April 2008. In the indictment the State Attorney's Office very precisely reconstructs who in this criminal organisation called who directly ahead of the assassination, how many times and from which phone numbers.

ZELJKO MILOVANOVIC (left) is charged of having procured and installed the explosive device while BOJAN GUDURIC (right) is charged of having been responsible for shooting with a sniper rifle in the event of the failure of the explosion Thanks to these telephone numbers investigators were able to reconstruct precisely how and when the assassins started tailing Pukanic. The first leads in this regard were recorded on 25 May 2008. That afternoon the traces of the presence of both Ivo Pukanic's and Robert Matanic's mobile phones were recorded in the area covered by the same base station. From that date to 23 October the assassins monitored Pukanic's movements a full 80 days. The indictment also reveals how one of the principals behind the assassination, Sreten Jocic, defended himself from the accusations levelled at him.

In his statement to the investigating judge he lied in trying to clear himself of the charges. He said that he had never heard of Nacional or of Ivo Pukanic, and admitted to being a long-time friend to Durovic since 1988 when he was best man at his wedding. Jocic said that he had not business affiliation with Durovic. He even had the impudence to go on record saying that he had never had any dealings with him, legal or otherwise, in his life. In his statement Jocic said that he had returned to Serbia in 1992 after an extended period of living abroad as an emigrant. He said that he left Serbia in 1994 after a dispute with the then head of the Interior Ministry.

He claims to have lived in several countries, and that he had never been in Croatia. He said that he had been arrested in Bulgaria on 20 June 2002, and that he had been extradited to The Netherlands on 16 August of that same year, where he spent 3 years 7 months in prison under maximum security. From there he was deported to Serbia on 23 March 2006. He served time in prison there too, but was later released on bail to defend himself at large. Analysing the lies uttered by Jocic, investigators concluded that, in spite of all the untruths spoken, his statement did not refute the statements made by witnesses Dusan Erceg and, in particular, Ratko Knezevic, that he had spent an extended period time in Montenegro with Durovic in the summers of 2007 and 2008.

ROBERT MATANIC is charged of having coordinated all of the participants of the criminal enterprise That Durovic had been in Montenegro in late September of 2008 is also evident from the SMS messages that were in the memory of his mobile phone, number +381 62 408 571. On 24 September 2008 at 8:15 am he received a message from Montenegro's Telenor Crna Gora welcoming him to the country. It was later established that he and Matanic, and some other persons in Montenegro, had then discussed the assassination of Pukanic.

The indictment precisely describes how the accused where caught lying. In an extensive letter Matanic came down hard on the testimony given by the key witness, Tomislav Marjanovic. He was not, however, aware that some of the statements he made in the letter worsened his position.

From the letter it is evident that Marjanovic had seen meetings between Matanic and Durovic even back in Bulgaria, whereby Matanic indirectly confirmed that he had lied when he had claimed to have only met Durovic much later, while he was in prison in Sremska Mitrovica. Durovic was caught lying when he claimed that he had never placed any phone calls to Matanic. A search of his mobile phone not only revealed that he had answered Matanic's calls, but also that he had informed him of his arrivals in Croatia. In the indictment it is stated that it would be illusory to accept Durovic's defence in which he states that he only contacted Matanic over the return of a 15 thousand euro debt. The investigators asked themselves while Matanic and Durovic would be so conspiratorial in their communication had the only matter at issue been a, for Durovic, small debt.

Well-informed judicial sources who have seen the indictment have told Nacional that the indictment closes stating that the "firm core of the organisation gathered around Robert Matanic did not waver even when he found himself in prison in Negotin and Sremska Mitrovica, but rather focused all of its activities then on his forceful liberation from prison.

LUKA MATANIC is charged with organising Milovanovic's flight from Croatia Parallel with the forceful jailbreak, which did not succeed, the services of lawyers were taken on, whose services are certainly above and beyond an acceptable and realistic attorney-client relationship, and an attempt was made first to transfer, and then extradite Robert Matanic from Serbia, with a significant contribution from Croatian authorities, even though there was no real basis for it. It all points to the actions of an organisation that covers all segments of an organised criminal enterprise, these being stable and significant financial support, manpower, the use of the resources of judicial bodies and the highest national institutions, mobility, technical capacity and lack of scruples in their actions. The murder of journalist Ivo Pukanic was ordered with the intention of thwarting him in his work as a journalist."