Death of a Premier: How Serbia’s Rotten System Enabled Zoran Djindjic’s Killers

The second was Zoran Vukojevic, a former policeman who was working as a security guard at gang leader Spasojevic's house.

The third was Branislav Bezarevic, who worked for the Security Information Agency, BIA, Serbia's national intelligence agency, and was Vukojevic's friend from police school.

Vukojevic arranged the meeting. "During that conversation, Bagzi asked him [Bezarevic] if he would like to give information about the movements of the prime minister," he recalled later in testimony at the District Court in Belgrade.

"[Bezarevic] looked at me, I told him to speak freely. And they agreed there that he wants to give information."

At the meeting, it was agreed that the Zemun Clan would pay Bezarevic 50,000 euros for information about Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's movements.

"Branko asked why do you need that information, and Bagzi said, 'We'll hit him, but what do you care? That's of no interest to you," Vukojevic said.

"That's when I learned for the first time - later in that conversation with Dusan, he said that they had decided to kill Djindjic."

Zoran Djindjic was the first democratic, post-communist prime minister of Serbia, and had been one of leaders of the political movement that brought down Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. He became prime minister in January 2001.

He inherited a country that was devastated by sanctions and organised crime and at the same time had to face up to the challenge of prosecuting war criminals and gangsters.

His brief time in office was fraught with threats and crises. By the time Bezarevic met Vukojevic and Milenkovic in February 2003, Djindjic had already politically survived a mutiny by the State Security Service's Special Operations...