Zoran Đinđić
Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the Prime Minister of Serbia, prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until Assassination of Zoran Đinđić, ...
, the sixth
Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, was
assassinated on Wednesday 12 March 2003, in
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
,
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
. Đinđić was fatally shot by a sniper while exiting his vehicle outside of the back entrance of the Serbian government headquarters. A state of emergency was immediately declared in the country, and during the police "
Operation Sabre", more than 11,000 people associated with organized criminal groups were detained.
Background
Đinđić previously escaped an assassination attempt in February 2003, in which a truck driven by
Dejan Milenković (AKA ''Bagzi''), a member of the
Zemun Clan, an organized crime group, attempted to force the Prime Minister's car off the road in
Novi Beograd
New Belgrade (, ) is a Subdivisions of Belgrade, municipality of the city of Belgrade. It was a Planned community, planned city and now is the central business district of Serbia and South East Europe. Construction began in 1948 in a previously un ...
. Đinđić escaped injury thanks to his security detail. Milenković was arrested, but released from custody after only a few days under unclear circumstances.
Đinđić had made many enemies domestically throughout his political career primarily because of his regard as being
pro-Western
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
and his hard-line policies on
organized crime
Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...
. Đinđić extradited
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
to the
ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribun ...
in 2001.
The assassination was organized and planned by
Dušan Spasojević and
Milorad Ulemek, also known as Legija. Ulemek was an ex-commander of the
Special Operations Unit (JSO), which was founded by Slobodan Milošević's secret service (
SDB) during the 1990s and was used during Milošević's rule for special operations in
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
and
Kosovo
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
, as well as for the elimination of Milošević's political opponents.
["Djindjic's killers convicted, sentenced after 3½-year trial"](_blank)
by Igor Jovanovic, Southeast European Times, 24 May 2007, accessed 21 January 2011
It was Ulemek who ordered
Zvezdan Jovanović
Zvezdan Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Звездан Јовановић; born 19 July 1965), known by the nicknames as Zmija and Zveki, is a Serbian former paramilitary and commander of the Serb Volunteer Guard and the Special Operations Unit (Serbia), S ...
to carry out the assassination. Ulemek was connected to the powerful Zemun Clan of the
Serbian mafia.
The assassin, Zvezdan Jovanović, was born in 1965 in a village near the town of
Peć
Peja or Peć, ), is the fifth most populous city in Kosovo and serves as the seat of the Peja Municipality and the District of Peja. It is located in the Rugova (region), Rugova region on the eastern section of the Accursed Mountains along the ...
,
Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
. Jovanović was a
lieutenant colonel in the JSO. Jovanović stated that he killed Đinđić to restore a pro-Milošević government.
Assassination

At 12:25
Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of Eur ...
, Đinđić was fatally wounded by a
gunshot while entering the Serbian government building where he was supposed to meet
Foreign Minister
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
Anna Lindh, and her colleague
Jan O. Karlsson (Lindh herself was assassinated just months later by a Serbian assassin). The shot penetrated his heart and killed him almost instantly. According to the official government statement, Đinđić was not conscious and did not have a pulse upon arriving at the emergency ward. His bodyguard, Milan Veruović, was also seriously wounded by the same bullet that killed the Prime minister, exiting the latter and hitting Veruović's stomach.
Jovanović fatally shot Đinđić from the window of a building approximately 180 meters away, using a
7.62mm Heckler & Koch G3 rifle.
Arrests and trial
Zvezdan Jovanović was arrested in March 2003 and was charged with Đinđić's murder. He was silent during most of his trial but, allegedly, once he confessed to the murder of Đinđić, he said in a police report that he felt no remorse for killing him.
Dušan Spasojević and his associate Mile Luković, were killed by Serbian police officers during a raid on 27 March 2003. Aleksandar Simović, one of the co-conspirators, was arrested in Belgrade on 23 November 2006. The trial, which lasted over four years, was marked with great political pressure, life threats to the Chamber members and cooperative witnesses. Also, several witnesses were murdered during the trial.
On 23 May 2007, the Belgrade Special Court for Organised Crime found Simović and eleven other men –
Milorad Ulemek,
Zvezdan Jovanović
Zvezdan Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Звездан Јовановић; born 19 July 1965), known by the nicknames as Zmija and Zveki, is a Serbian former paramilitary and commander of the Serb Volunteer Guard and the Special Operations Unit (Serbia), S ...
, Dejan Milenković, Vladimir Milisavljević,
Sretko Kalinić, Ninoslav Konstantinović, Milan Jurišić, Dušan Krsmanović, Željko Tojaga, Saša Pejaković and Branislav Bezarević – guilty for the
premeditated murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse ...
of Zoran Đinđić. Ulemek and Jovanović were each handed sentences of 40 years in prison while the others were given sentences ranging from 8 to 35 years. Ulemek was part of a group of seven officers who had previously been convicted for the assassination of former Serbian President
Ivan Stambolić and the attempted assassination of
Vuk Drašković
Vuk Drašković ( sr-cyrl, Вук Драшковић, ; born 29 November 1946) is a Serbian writer and politician. He is the co-founder and former leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, serving as president from 1990 to 2024. He also served as th ...
, having been given a sentence of 40 years in that case as well.
Alternative and conspiracy theory
In September 2014, journalist Nikola Vrzić and Milan Veruović, personal bodyguard of Zoran Đinđić, who was also severely injured but survived, published a book ''
The Third Bullet'' (). The name of the book comes from the claim that Đinđić was shot by the second sniper, unlike what the official version says. The authors claim that indictment (and later trial verdict) is based neither on the physical evidence, nor eyewitness testimonies, but constructed on unsustainable expertise and carefully built network of confessions and testimonies of cooperative witnesses.
To discover the political background of the assassination, the authors returned to analyzing Đinđić's political activities over the period of several months before his death, indicating that Đinđić started to strive much more for the
national interest
The national interest is a sovereign state's goals and ambitions – be they economic, military, cultural, or otherwise – taken to be the aim of its government.
Etymology
The Italian phrase ''ragione degli stati'' was first used by Giovanni de ...
s of Serbia (e.g. resolving the status of
Kosovo and Metohija, fearing that the western countries are under wraps working on its independence), seeking from his western partners to appreciate these national interests of Serbia, but was encountered with strong refusal.
The book, however, has been heavily criticized afterwards and was accused of following the anti-Đinđić mediatic campaign logic that existed during the term of the defunct Prime Minister. It has thus been labelled as nothing more than an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dindic, Zoran
Political history of Serbia
Murder in Serbia
People murdered by Serbian organized crime
Organized crime events in Serbia
Assassinations in Serbia
False flag conspiracy theories
Zemun Clan
2000s in Belgrade
Serbian murder victims
March 2003 in Europe
2003 murders in Serbia
Murders by law enforcement officers