A Serbian court today convicted a former Serbian secret police chief and ally of ex-Yugoslav president Mr Slobodan Milosevic for covering up the assassination of four opposition politicians in 1999.
Mr Rade Markovic was sentenced to seven years prison for "complicity in covering up the murders" of the politicians from the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), one of the most persistent opponents to Mr Milosevic's autocratic regime.
The four were killed in a car crash caused by a truck allegedly owned by Mr Markovic's secret police.
The two secret police agents in the truck at the time of the crash, Mr Nenad Ilic and Mr Nenad Bujosevic, were sentenced to 15 years each for murder.
SPO leader Mr Vuk Draskovic survived the crash and has repeatedly claimed he was the target of an assassination attempt.
Mr Markovic (55) was initially charged with the murder and the attempted murder of Mr Draskovic but the court changed the indictment and found him guilty only of helping the two police agents to cover up the crime, according to lawyers.
The families of the victims were outraged at the verdict and their protests interrupted the proceedings before the judge could read the sentence against a fourth accused, former Belgrade secret police chief Mr Milan Radonjic.
According to his lawyer, Mr Radonjic was acquitted. "This is a terrible and a shameful verdict and it is continuation of (Milosevic's) criminal system, while for justice and the truth it is a step back," Mr Vladimir Bozovic, a lawyer for the victims' families said.
"The indictment was changed so it appeared that there had been no organizer of the murder and that the four died accidentally."
AFP