The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in Belgrade sentenced Željko Milovanović, an alleged member of Jocić’s group, to 40 years in prison, reports B92. They also gave his associate, Milenko Kuzmanović, five years for the murder.
Pukanić and his co-worker at the Nacional newspaper were killed in Croatia in October 2008, when a bomb planted near the editor’s car exploded.
According to the prosecution, Pukanić was targeted because of his reporting on international cigarette smuggling. The prosecution argued that Jocić received more than US$ 2 million from an unknown client to organize the murder of the newspaper editor.
The Serbian court said that there was not enough evidence to convict Jocić himself, reports Reuters. The court did say, however, that Slobodan Đurović, an associate of Jocić, made an agreement with an unknown person to take out Pukanić.
According to B92, Đurović is believed to have been the liaison between the unknown client and the hit men who set the bomb. Đurović has, in another trial in Croatia, already been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of Pukanić.
Though Jocić was acquitted in this murder, he is already serving time for the 1995 murder of his rival Goran Marjanović. Jocić was given 15 years in prison after that 2010 trial.
