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Slobodan Milosevic’s former lawyer shot dead in Belgrade

Dragoslav Ognjanovic (57) had also defended some of Serbia’s leading underworld figures

A 2002 file image of Dragoslav Ognjanovic, adviser to Slobodan Milosevic, being surrounded by media during the course of Milosevic’s trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Photograph: Paul Vreeker/Reuters.

Sun Jul 29 2018 - 10:57

A prominent Belgrade lawyer who in the past helped to defend the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was shot dead in front of his home on Saturday, police said.

Dragoslav Ognjanovic (57) was killed in front of his apartment building in the Novi Beograd neighbourhood in a gangland-style attack. His 26-year-old son was wounded in the right arm, Serbia's interior ministry said in a statement.

As a prominent criminal lawyer, Ognjanovic served in the early 2000s on a legal team that helped to defend Milosevic at his war crimes trial before the UN tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Milosevic died in the tribunal’s detention unit in 2006 before a verdict was reached.

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Over the years, Ognjanovic also defended some of Serbia’s leading underworld figures.

Several prominent members of Serbian and Montenegrin organised crime networks have been killed in Belgrade in the past two years in what police describe as a turf war over the illegal drugs market. - Reuters

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