Serbian PM murderer arrested

2003-03-15 21:21

Belgrade - One of the leaders of the gang blamed for the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic and six other suspects were arrested Saturday, B92 radio reported.

Police said that Mladjan Micic, known as "Rat" - one of 23 suspected leaders of the so-called Zemun gang blamed for Djindjic's murder - was arrested in the village Malo Crnice, 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Belgrade.

A large amount of weapons and ammunition, as well as a number of luxury vehicles, false registration plates and other "evidence" were seized during the arrest, it added.

Malo Crnice is located near Pozarevac, the hometown of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, whose extradition to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on the order of Djindjic outraged many Serbian nationalists.

Police said late Friday that a total of 181 people had been arrested since Djindjic's killing on Wednesday.

On Friday, a special police unit surrounded and demolished a luxurious villa in a Belgrade suburb belonging to Dusan Spasojevic, one of the three main suspects.

Spasojevic, as well as Milorad Lukovic, better known under his nom de guerre Legija, is still at large. Lukovic was a former commander of paramilitary units, blamed for numerous atrocities during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

an/rl

- AFX