Posted on 10/20/2003 3:16:18 PM PDT by joan
BELGRADE, Oct 20 (AFP) - A bodyguard of slain Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic Monday disputed the findings of an official enquiry, insisting that two crack marksmen had carried out the assassination instead of one.
He told a radio station he believed two snipers facing each other from two streets parallel to the government headquarters had opened fire on the victim.
But the interior ministry and state prosecutor dismissed his claims as an emotional reaction and speculation.
Milan Veruovic, head of Djindjic's personal security detail, was himself seriously wounded in the shooting in the courtyard of the government building last March.
The official version is that a lone gunman, Zvezdan Jovanovic, fired two bullets from the window of a neighbouring building, hitting Djindjic and Veruovic.
Speaking on B92 radio station, Veruovic expressed surprise that there had been no reconstruction of the crime and that he had not been interviewed by police:
"It's true that I was seriously wounded but I never lost consciousness. I was conscious when I was taken to hospital. I remember everything and I saw very well what happened that day."
Responding, the Serbian interior ministry dismissed his assertions, denying any suggestion of a cover-up and suggesting the former bodyguard was reacting emotionally in his desire to get at the truth about the killing.
Veruovic, in charge of two security teams guarding the prime minister, told the radio three shots had been fired and not just two as claimed by the enquiry report, which Veruovic claimed had been completed in haste.
He said the first of three shots had killed Djindjic outside the main government building in central Belgrade on March 12.
"The sound of the first bullet that hit the prime minister was not of the same strength and intensity as another two that hit me and a wall," he said.
"This makes me believe shots had been fired from opposite directions," he said.
Police said a Jovanovic had fired two bullets from the window of a building on Admirala Geprata street, hitting Djindjic and Veruovic.
But the bodyguard said the bullet that hit Djindjic had been fired from Bircaninova Street. "And I was hit by one of two bullets fired by Zvezdan Jovanovic from the window of a building on Admirala Geprata Street," he said.
A communique by the interior ministry reiterated the official version that only two bullets had been fired, and insisted Veruovic had indeed been interviewed on the day of the assassination.
"There is no reason to fuel suspicion about the way in which the enquiry was conducted," the communique said, adding: "Especially on the part of someone who was part of Mr Djindjic's close entourage."
"The interior ministry has not covered up any facts unearthed during the enquiry," it continued. "We are convinced that Milan Veruovic wishes to contribute by his statements to elucidating all the facts linked to the assassination of the prime minister, and that these statements are the result of an emotional reaction."
State Attorney Djordje Ostojic, quoted by Beta news agency, described Veruovic's views as speculation.
"The enquiry established the cirucmstances of the assassination and a court will decide on whether there must be a reconstuction of the event", he said.
Jovanovic, at the time the deputy commander of a special police unit known as the Red Berets, is the only person to have been charged with the murder although several others are accused of organising the plot.
Fifteen people were indicted in August for being directly implicated in the assassination, including a former chief of the Red Berets, Milorad Lukovic Legija.
Lukovic has been in hiding since the murder and will be tried in absentia.
Justice Minister Vladan Batic said Monday that the trial would begin in the next two months.
Democratization at its finest?
(Are trials in absentia constitutional (art. III sect. 2) or not?)
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.