Assassination of Zoran Đinđić

Assassination of Zoran Đinđić
Zoran Đinđić at Davos Conference
Location	Belgrade, Serbia
Coordinates	44°48′24″N 20°27′36.1″E / 44.80667°N 20.460028°E / 44.80667; 20.460028
Date	12 March 2003 12:23 p.m. (UTC+01:00)
Target	Zoran Đinđić
Attack type	Sniper assassination
Deaths	1 (Zoran Đinđić)
Non-fatal injuries	1 (Milan Veruović, bodyguard)
Perpetrators	Zvezdan Jovanović (incl. 11 accomplices under the orders of Milorad Ulemek with ties to Serbian Organized Crime)

Zoran Đinđić, the sixth Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, was assassinated at 12:23 p.m. Central European Time on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, in Belgrade, Serbia. Đinđić was fatally shot by a sniper while exiting his vehicle outside of the back entrance of the Serbian government headquarters.

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. Đinđić escaped injury thanks to his security detail. Milenković was arrested, but released from custody after only a few days. The investigative court explained their decision to release Milenković by stating that he was a salesman whose business suffered from his absence.

Đinđić had made many enemies domestically throughout his political career primarily of because of his regard as being pro-Western and his hard-line policies on organized crime. Đinđić extradited Slobodan Milošević to the ICTY 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 JSO (Special Operations Unit), which was founded by Slobodan Milošević's secret service during the 1990s and was used during Milošević's rule for special operations in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as well as for the elimination of Milošević's political opponents.