Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could be captured within days after the arrest last night of the head of his feared secret police.
|
|
Slobodan Milosevic:
net is closing |
Mr Rade Markovic was taken into custody as part of an investigation into the 1999 car crash which slightly injured opposition leader Mr Vuk Draskovic and killed four of his associates.
|
The arrest was the boldest move so far by Serbia's justice authorities since they were purged of Mr Milosevic’s loyalists after the longtime leader's downfall in a mass uprising last October.
"We are entering a decisive battle against crime and in that battle no one will be untouchable", Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said.
"The investigation is being conducted very rapidly and I think it will becompleted very quickly - in a day or two, in any case", Mr Batic told a news conference in Belgrade.
Mr Draskovic had long branded the crash an assassination attempt organised by Mr Markovic's DB state security agency. Mr Milosevic's opponents believe its agents were involved in a string of murky killings and kidnappings linked to politics.
Serbian reformers and Western diplomats said Mr Markovic could reveal much of what went on behind the scenes in the old regime, making him a potential key witness in investigations into Mr Milosevic and his influential wife Mira.