Serbs jailed for Arkan killing

Serb military leader Zeljko Raznatovic, a.ka. Arkan, was shot dead in January

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A former policeman has been jailed for 20 years for killing notorious Serbian warlord Arkan.

Belgrade district court convicted Dobrosav Gavric, 25, on three counts of murder in the gangland-style assassinations of Arkan, whose real name was Zeljko Raznatovic, and his two bodyguards on January 15 in a Belgrade hotel.

Seven others were found guilty of either being accomplices or aiding in the conspiracy to kill Arkan.

Two of them received 15 years in prison, while the rest were handed lesser prison sentences of up to three years.

Arkan, who led a dreaded paramilitary unit during the 1991-95 wars in Croatia and Bosnia, was under indictment by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged war crimes committed in those two former Yugoslav republics.

Arkan's killing triggered speculation that former President Slobodan Milosevic -- also a war crimes suspect currently awaiting trial in The Hague -- had been trying to silence a potential witness against him.

Arkan and his militia had close ties with the secret police of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.

Judge Dragoljub Djordjevic said that after examining evidence and questioning 70 witnesses, the court was satisfied the suspects had killed Arkan with premeditation but their motive remained a mystery.

'Deal involved'

Gavric, in a wheelchair as a result of shots fired by Arkan's bodyguard after the killing, remained silent after the verdict was delivered to a packed courtroom.

Members of Arkan's family alleged Serbia's secret police -- loyal to Milosevic -- were involved in the killing. Milosevic's last secret police boss, Rade Markovic, denied during the trial that his service played any role.

Markovic was sentenced to a year in prison earlier this year for destroying evidence in police archives after Milosevic was ousted a year ago.

"It is obvious some deal was involved, something was promised to the perpetrators, but we could not determine what or who may have ordered it," judge Djordjevic said.

"I hope that Rade Markovic will never leave that prison, because he pulled the strings" behind Arkan's murder, Arkan's sister, Jasna Diklic told reporters.

According to the indictment, the gunmen approached Arkan as he sat in the hotel's lobby and fired several times at him and the bodyguards. A third bodyguard was wounded but survived, as did a woman in the lobby.

Another suspect, Dragan Nikolic, remains at large and was sentenced to 15 years in absentia as one of the two accomplices.

Gavric, a low-ranking police officer, pleaded innocent, claiming he had been at the hotel for a cup of coffee and was unfairly accused.