Spain arrests fugitive convict in Serbia PM killing

Spanish police arrested one of the fugitives convicted of the 2003 assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, they said on Friday. The captured convict, Vladimir Milisavljevic, known in Serbia as Budala, was found guilty in 2007 along with 11 others of taking part in the killing. He was arrested Thursday in a restaurant in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, along with Serbian gang leader Luka Bojovic, a police statement said. Bojovic is the leader of the Zemun gang, which developed from Arkan's Tigers, a Serbian paramilitary group "known for its cruelty during the Balkan wars" of the 1990s, the statement said. Bojovic, aged 39 according to the Spanish police, rose to head the Zemun gang after other members were convicted for the killing of Djindjic. The pro-Western reforming prime minister was gunned down in Belgrade in 2003, two years after taking office following the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic. Bojovic was arrested in October 2007, suspected of links to those involved in Djindjic's murder, but later released for a lack of evidence. He was indicted separately for illegal possession of arms and sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2009 but fled before serving his sentence. He was wanted by Serbia and Interpol for other killings as well as trafficking of people, drugs and arms and prostitution offences. "Bojovic is the gang leader and one of the fugitives most wanted by various countries and Interpol. He is suspected of 20 killings in Serbia, the Netherlands and Spain," the Spanish statement said. "Milisavljevic, his lieutenant, travelled from Las Palmas (in the Canary Islands) to Madrid and finally to Valencia to meet with the gang leader of the Serbian mafia in a restaurant in central Valencia, where they were arrested." Milisavljevic was sentenced in absentia to 35 years' jail for his role in the killing of Djindjic. He was among five convicts who stayed on the run following the sentencing in 2007. The Spanish police said that they also arrested a hitman for the gang, Sinisa Petric, also known as "Baku", who had escaped from a Serbian jail. In Serbia, Interior Minister Izica Dacic addded in a news conference that another Zemun hitman was also arrested in Spain: Vladimir Mijanovic, known as Zuba ("Teeth"). The arrests followed a 20-month long operation by Spanish police in collaboration with Serbia and the Netherlands. Serbia issued an Interpol arrest warrant for Bojovic in September 2010. According to the indictment, he is suspected of for several murders and murder attempts since he took over the gang in 2003. Serbian junior justice minister Slobodan Homen told the country's official news agency Tanjug that the ministry would request an "expedited procedure" for all those arrested to be extradited to Serbia. On Tuesday, Serbian police thwarted an attempted jailbreak by another of the men convicted of plotting Djindjic's assassination, Sretko Kalinic, who was caught in Croatia in 2010