Veselin "Vesko" Vukotić (born 12 February 1958) is a Montenegrin criminal and

hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

. He was arrested in February 2006 and released from jail in August 2009.

Criminal activity

Vukotić is best known as one of the assassins of

Enver Hadri Enver Hadri (1941 – 25 February 1990) was a Kosovo Albanian human rights activist. According to an Albanian blog AACL, he was assassinated while he stopped at a traffic light in Brussels, by three Yugoslavs working for State Security Admi ...

, a Kosovo-Albanian human rights activist, accused by Yugoslav State Security Service as a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

agent. On February 25, 1990, Hadri was shot by Vukotić,

Andrija Lakonić Andrija (; sr-cyr, Андрија) is a South Slavic masculine given name. It is cognate to Greek ''Andreas'', or English Andrew. Notable people with the name include: *Andrija, Prince of Hum (fl. 1203–50), medieval nobleman from the Vukanović ...

, and Darko Ašanin (all employed and contracted by Yugoslav State Security Service ( SDB) at the time) in the Belgian capital

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. It is thought that the assassination was ordered by the Yugoslav secret service. Later that year Vukotić killed Lakonić at ''Nana'' nightclub 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 ...

's neighbourhood of

Senjak Senjak ( sr-Cyrl, Сењак, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, one of the three municipalities that constitute the very center of the city, it is an affluent neighborhood containing emba ...

in the presence of Ašanin and Serbian police inspector Miroslav Bižić. The very next day after the murder, Vukotić escaped to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

with help from inspector Bižić.Posle izručenja Vukotića počinje istraga za prvo mafijaško ubistvo, ''Blic'', December 20, 2008
Both Ašanin and Bižić were later murdered. Despite arrest warrants, Vukotić continued traveling, spending most of his time in

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

. On November 16, 1997, during a shooting at the Flash nightclub in

Prčanj Prčanj ( Montenegrin: Прчањ, ) is a small town along the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 1128 people. It is located 5 kilometres west of Kotor, opposite to Dobrota and between the sett ...

near

Kotor Kotor (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Котор, ), historically known as Cattaro (from Italian language, Italian: ), is a town in Coastal Montenegro, Coastal region of Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Bay of Kotor. The city has ...

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

, he murdered sailor Duško Bošković and wounded Vladimir Pavićević.

Arrest and subsequent events

Arrest

Vukotić was arrested in late February 2006 by

Spanish police Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine ** Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

at the

Barajas Airport Barajas may refer to: * Barajas (Madrid), the district of Madrid in which the airport lies ** Barajas (Madrid Metro), station along Line 8 of the Madrid Metro ** Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, principal airport of Madrid, Spain * Barajas ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

after landing there on a flight from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. At the time he traveled with a forged Croatian passport and driver's license issued to the name Ludvig Bulić. It is thought that the arrest was made as a result of a tip by Montenegrin police to their

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

counterparts who in turn extended the information to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The basis for Vukotić's arrest was a 16-year-old arrest warrant issued by the

Belgian police Law enforcement in Belgium is conducted by an integrated police service structured on the federal and local levels, made up of the Federal Police (Belgium), Federal Police and the Local police, Local Police. Both forces are autonomous and subor ...

for Hadri's murder as well as the arrest warrant for Bošković's murder. There was talk that the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

(ICTY) showed interest in having Vukotić as a witness at the trial of

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 ...

since several witnesses mentioned Vukotić's name in their testimonies, but nothing ever came of it.

Imprisonment

Spanish authorities extradited Vukotić to Belgium where he spent more than two years in prison in Saint-Gilles. On December 18, 2008 Belgian authorities extradited him to Serbia under heavy security, because he had

Serbian citizenship Citizenship of Serbia is regulated by the 2004 Citizenship Act, based primarily on the principle of Jus sanguinis. Article 23 of the citizenship law stipulates that any foreign national with Serbian descent has the right to acquire Serbian citi ...

. He was kept in (''Okružni zatvor'') in Novi Sad for less than a year.

Release

In August 2009, he suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

and later was released to freedom for medical treatment. Vukotić was arrested again on December 31, 2010 by local Serbian police, but was released to freedom a few hours later, on the same evening.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vukotic, Veselin People from Nikšić Living people 1958 births Montenegrin criminals