Police have found the grave of a missing former Serbian president they believe was killed by an elite police unit also suspected in the slaying of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, authorities said Friday. The announcement came less than a day after two main suspects in Djindjic's assassination died in a shootout with police.
| That was, ummmm... convenient... |
Investigators believe Dusan Spasojevic, 35, and Mile Lukovic, 34, were leaders of the Zemun Clan, a crime gang with ties to former President Slobodan Milosevic that allegedly arranged the killing along with the police unit. The gang members had been hiding for days in the Belgrade suburb of Barajevo, authorities said. As officers tried to arrest them Thursday night, they "opened automatic fire, forcing the officers to respond," police said in a statement Friday.
Saves time, money, and embarassing questions.
| Especially embarrassing questions... |
The government did not specify what role the two allegedly played in the assassination. A police official speaking on condition of anonymity said they organized and financed the plot. On Friday, Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said police had found the body of Ivan Stambolic, Serbia's president in the late 1980s, in a lime-covered grave on a mountain in northern Serbia. Stambolic, a bitter foe of Milosevic, had been missing since August 2000, when when he was abducted by unknown assailants while jogging in a Belgrade park. Police on Monday arrested Zvezdan Jovanovic, accused of firing the shots that killed Djindjic who was ambushed as he left an armored car outside the government building in Belgrade. Jovanovic, the special police unit's deputy commander, served as Milosevic's bodyguard before he was ousted in a Djindjic-led popular revolt in 2000.
The "special police unit" were Milosevic's top bully boys.
The group's ringleader, Milorad Lukovic, known as Legija, who also served as the special unit's commander, remains at large. He is not related to Mile Lukovic, the killed suspect.
His body will turn up sooner or later. |