A Serbian man wanted for a triple murder is in custody after hiding out in South Africa for roughly four years.
|||A Serbian fugitive wanted for two assassinations and a murder, including that of Serbia’s most feared warlord, will remain in custody until his bail application in January ahead of an extradition hearing.
Dobrosav Gavric, 38, who was driving underworld figure Cyril Beeka when Beeka was killed in an assassination-style shooting in March and who had been using a false name, handed himself over to the Hawks in Bellville on Tuesday after hiding out in South Africa for roughly four years.
Gavric, 38, dressed in denims and a white collared shirt, appeared before magistrate Jasthree Steyn in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Steyn ordered that Gavric remain in custody at the Sea Point police station until his formal bail application on January 10.
Gavric's attorney, Juan Smuts, said outside court that his client had given his full co-operation to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).
His client was "seriously ill" and would fight the extradition request.
"My client is seriously ill and appropriate medical evidence will be heard," Smuts said. "Obviously that extradition request will be opposed."
Gavric handed himself over to the Hawks in Bellville, Cape Town, around 10am on Tuesday.
According to the Serbian news website B92, Gavric was arrested in 2001 after he allegedly took part in the assassination of two people and wounded a civilian who later died in hospital.
One of those he killed was feared warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan. Arkan was a Serbian paramilitary leader killed in January 2000. He was accused of crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 until 1995 by the Hague Tribunal.
At the time of the murder Gavric, then 23, had been a junior police member and was on sick leave.
Gavric denied being involved in the murder. He was sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison.
According to B92, Gavric was spotted in restaurants while visiting his family in a Serbian town two weeks ago.
South African police obtained a warrant for Gavric's arrest on Monday after they received an extradition request from Serbian officials.
On Tuesday, Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela said Gavric had used the name Sasa Kobacevic to enter South Africa four years ago. This is the name he gave police after he was wounded during Beeka’s murder on March 21.
Beeka was shot dead while he was a passenger in a BMW 4X4 driven by Gavric near the University of the Western Cape on March 21. Gavric was shot in the chest.
Nearly two weeks ago, according to Serbian media group B92, Serbia’s interior minister Ivica Dacic said police had given information to South African authorities to determine if Gavric was Kobacevic’s real name.
Last week Polela said Gavric, whom he had then still referred to as Kobacevic, had been taken to hospital following the Beeka shooting and when he was discharged officers had found cocaine in his bag.
This had led to Gavric being arrested for drug possession and Polela had said the Hawks started working with Serbian authorities to determine if Kobacevic was indeed Gavric.
On Tuesday, Polela said the Hawks had confirmed Kobacevic’s real name was Dobrosav Gavric.
According to news reports from a decade ago, Gavric and two other men were convicted of the murder of Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, a Serbian paramilitary leader killed in January 2000 who had been Interpol’s most wanted man in the 1970s and 1980s.
A warning Interpol had put out about Arkan before his death had said: “It is believed that this person is extremely dangerous and always armed.”
According to a Wikipedia page on Arkan, who was charged with crimes against humanity for actions carried out during the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian war, he was shot while having coffee in the lobby of a hotel in Belgrade, Serbia.
Although Gavric was wounded by Arkan’s bodyguard after shooting the warlord, he had never admitted to Arkan’s killing.
But about a decade ago a Belgrade district court found him guilty and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment.
Gavric’s co-accused Milan Duricic and Dragan Nikolic received 15-year sentences.
Wikipedia says the guilty verdict was then overturned by the Supreme Court and that five years ago a new trial into Arkan’s murder was conducted and Gavric, Duricic and Nikolic were again found guilty and sentenced. Only Nikolic was serving his sentence as Gavric and Duricic were on the run.
On Tuesday, Polela said Gavric entered South Africa in 2007 using a false passport.
He said the Hawks were probing how he had done so.
Last week Beeka’s brother Eddie Beeka said he had known the man who had been driving his brother when he was shot as “Sasa”. He had read reports that Sasa could be Gavric, but said he was surprised at this
Eddie Beeka had said the family was not following the police’s investigation into his brother’s murder closely as they did not want to interfere with the probe.
Beeka’s wife Sonia had said her family was well. She did not want to comment further.
Beeka, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) informant, had links to top ANC circles and to the underworld and had evaded charges including drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, assault and forgery.
He had been referred to as “lieutenant” to Cape-based mafioso Vito Palazzolo and was linked with Yuri “the Russian” Ulianitski, gunned down in Cape Town with his four-year-old-daughter in May 2007.
In March last year, during the investigation of striptease kingpin Lolly Jackson’s killer, Beeka’s name was associated with the man alleged to have gunned down Jackson. - Cape Times, Sapa
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za