Serb secret police chief jailed over car killings

The former security chief of Serbia was sentenced to seven years in jail yesterday for his role in an assassination attempt on the opposition leader Vuk Draskovic.

The prosecution demanded the maximum 40-year term for Rade Markovic and three former members of the security services for the attempted assassination of Mr Draskovic and the murder of four of his aides in a staged car accident in October 1999.

"This sentence is a crime in itself, a scandal," Mr Draskovic said. "It seems that [former president Slobodan] Milosevic still rules Serbia."

Mr Draskovic maintains that the crash, in which a lorry swerved across the road and hit cars carrying him and his aides, was an assassination attempt by Mr Milosevic's secret police. But the presiding judge in the case at Belgrade District Court concluded yesterday that the attempt on Mr Draskovic's life was an independent criminal act of two mavericks from the "Red Berets", a notorious Milosevic-era paramilitary unit.

Nenad Bujosevic and Nenad Ilic were sentenced to 15 years each for killing Mr Draskovic's entourage, including his brother-in-law. Markovic was found guilty and sentenced only for covering up the crime by removing police records on the truck. The fourth accused man, Markovic's aide Milan Radonjic, was found not guilty.

The verdict angered the dead men's relatives, who expected Markovic to be held directly responsible for the murder. Dozens of relatives broke down the doors of the courtroom and shouted "killers, killers" as the judge sentenced the three men. Proceedings were halted and were concluded in the judge's chambers with only the lawyers present.

"This is a ridiculous and shameful sentence" said the lawyer for the victims, Vladimir Bozovic. "Having no organiser in this crime means removing the motive for the crime. The former regime is being absolved of what it did."

Both sides will appeal against the verdict.

Markovic has been accused of helping to organise the abductions or killings of opposition politicians, journalists and other prominent figures who could have endangered Mr Milosevic, including Ivan Stambolic.

Mr Stambolic was the last president of Serbia before Mr Milosevic took the post in 1989. He was abducted in August 2000 and is still missing, believed dead.

Markovic has also been linked to the 1999 killing of Slavko Curuvija, an independent newspaper publisher. He has not been charged with any of these crimes.

According to a former crime boss who is telling his story, Markovic was in daily contact with Mr Milosevic and received direct orders from him. Markovic initially survived the popular uprising that ousted Mr Milosevic in October 2000. Mr Milosevic is now on trial at the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.