Milan Beko (Beta/Nenad Petrovic)
In the trial for the attempted murder of businessman Milan Beko, the Higher Court has handed down a verdict sentencing Aleksandar Zdravkovic to 10 years in prison, while Maja Adrovac has been acquitted, N1 TV reports in its online edition.
This is a first-instance verdict for Zdravkovic, while Maja Adrovac was also acquitted in the first trial of aiding the attacker after the crime.
The prosecution earlier proposed prison sentences of no less than 15 years each for Maja Adrovac and Aleksandar Zdravkovic, while the defense attorneys asked for a not guilty verdict.
The prosecution claims that Adrovac provided aid in the criminal offense and left traces of DNA.
Zdravkovic was arrested in the meantime and charged with shooting Beko, and so the indictments were merged into a single proceeding.
Zdravkovic was previously tried before the Special Court for involvement in a kidnapping as a member of the so-called Zemun gang, but was acquitted of those charges.
It had initially been planned to question Maja Adrovac's husband Ivan Adrovac as a witness via video link, but the idea was dropped due to complications. According to the media, Ivan Adrovac is serving a prison sentence in Switzerland for multiple robberies.
Beko said earlier that a "professional" had shot him, while the witnesses of the attack "remember as much as they are allowed to remember."
"I suspect as much as I am allowed to suspect who is behind this," said Beko, adding that maybe with some braver prosecution he would be braver, too, and that the witnesses would remember everything that was important.
An attacker and their accessory attempted to murder Beko outside his house in Belgrade's Senjak quarter in November 2014 by firing several shots into his abdomen, and then fled the scene.
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