Niko Franjic

The deaths of two Croatian journalists, killed when a bomb exploded beneath their car Thursday in Zagreb, is getting extensive coverage across the region today. 

New York, October 23, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the deaths of Ivo Pukanic, owner and editorial director, and Niko Franjic, marketing director, of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional.

After learning today that Ivo Pukanic, owner and editorial director, and Niko Franjic, marketing director, of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, were killed when a bomb exploded under Pukanic's car parked outside the paper's building, we issued the following statement...

Pukanic, owner and editorial director of the Zagreb-based political weekly Nacional, and Niko Franjic, the marketing director, were killed when a bomb placed under the journalist's car exploded outside the paper's offices, according to press reports and CPJ sources. Local press reports said Pukanic and Franjic were close to the car when the blast took place. Nacional often exposed corruption, organized crime, and human rights abuses, local sources told CPJ.

Croatian authorities moved swiftly to pursue the killers. On October 24, The Associated Press quoted Prime Minister Ivo Sanader as saying that authorities "will fight organized crime or terrorism--whatever is behind this murder--to its very end." On November 1, Croatian police announced that they had charged five suspects in connection with the murder.

In addition, police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said investigators were working with Bosnian authorities to track down the suspect they believe planted the bomb. Local press reports identified the suspect as Zeljko Milovanovic, a Bosnian Serb and former member of a Serbian paramilitary group called the Red Berets. He held both Croatian and Bosnian passports, according to the independent Serbian broadcaster B92. According to Reuters, Bosnian police raided Milovanovic's house in the northern Bosnian town of Doboj on October 31, but he was not at home.

Pukanic had reported an earlier attack to police. In April, he told police, an unidentified assailant approached him near his apartment building, brandished a handgun and fired, narrowly missing him, the Croatian news Web site Javno reported. The assailant was not apprehended.

In 2009, Sreten Jocic, a member of an organized crime group and the suspected mastermind, was charged with involvement in Pukanic's murder. The next year, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for an unrelated murder. He is awaiting trial for the Pukanic case.

In November 2010, the Municipal Court in Zagreb convicted five conspirators in the bombing and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 33 years. Milovanovic was convicted in absentia and sentenced to a 40-year term. Arrested in Serbia in 2009, Milovanovic was being tried in Belgrade on similar charges.

Authorities said organized crime figures had targeted Pukanic to prevent his paper from publishing a series of articles exposing tobacco smuggling in the Balkans.