Prison Guards to be Questioned Over Escape Attempt

Belgrade | Photo by: AP Darko Vojinovic

The guards were arrested on Tuesday evening on suspicion of allowing the prisoners, Sretko Kalinic and Zeljko Milovanovic, to mount their escape attempt. If found guilty, they could face between one and eight years behind bars.

All of the guards have been remanded in custody for 48 hours.

Guards Ninoslav Strahinjic, Dragisa Grkovic, Srdjan Danic, Nenad Mitrovic and Tomislav Lalovic were automatically suspended after their arrest.

Kalinic and Milovanovic escaped from their cells at the district prison on Tuesday morning by cutting through bars in their doors. They were caught after they jumped into the prison yard.

Investigators believe the pair were counting on support from both inside and outside the prison.

Kalinic and Milovanovic will be questioned by an investigative judge in Belgrade.

Kalinic was arrested in Croatia and extradited to Serbia after spending years in hiding. He was previously sentenced in absentia to 40 years for involvement in the 2003 assassination of Serbia's then-prime minister Zoran Djindjic.

A court in Belgrade last year granted him a retrial.

Milovanovic was arrested for the murder of Croatian journalist and publisher Ivo Pukanic.