ARKAN'S ASSASSINS CONVICTED

BELGRADE, Oct 26 (Hina) - The Belgrade County Court on Friday convicted a group of persons charged with last year's assassination of Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, leader of the former paramilitary units "Tigers", to a total of 59 years and six months in prison. A panel of judges sentenced Dobroslav Gavric as perpetrator of the murder to 20 years in prison, and Milan Djuricic and Dragan Nikolic, the latter at large, to 15 years each as accessories in the Jan. 15, 2000 murder in the lobby of Belgrade's Intercontinental hotel. Besides Raznatovic, his friends Milenko Mandic and Dragan Garic, former staff of the Serbian Interior Ministry, were also killed in the shooting, while a female passer-by was wounded. The convicted Gavric was also wounded in the shooting. At the time he was an active employee of said ministry. Another three accessories in the murder were sentenced to three years in prison each. In his closing speech, Judge Dragoljub Djordjevic said the murder had not been completely cleared, even though liability had been established. Raznatovic's sister Jasna Diklic said the case was not over "as Serbia's state security service, namely its former head Rade Markovic, are behind everything." Markovic is serving a one-year prison sentence for revealing a state secret. (hina) ha sb