Known killer of the Sarajevo Soccer Team fan still on the run

SARAJEVO (AA) – Four years after the murder of a fan of the Sarajevo Soccer Team, his killer is still free.

Fan of the football team Sarajevo, Vedran Puljic (24), was killed by firearms in mass riots near the stadium in Siroki Brijeg shortly before the match between the Siroki Brijeg Soccer Team and Sarajevo Soccer Team on 4 October 2009.

Siroki Brijeg Soccer Team is a team of the same name city in the northwestern Herzegovina, mostly inhabited by Croats.

This murder has further raised tensions between the western Herzegovina and the capital of the country.

"Killing of Vedran Puljic exactly four years ago in Siroki Brijeg is the most tragic event in the Bosnian football. We can not solve the problems that we have before finding the killer," told to the Anadolu Agency (AA) the director of the Sarajevo Soccer Team Dino Selimovic.

Selimovic added that the killer must be caught and brought to the court.

Today, on the anniversary of Vedran's death, the management of the Sarajevo Soccer Team together with the fans will visit his grave in Sarajevo and lay flowers.

The chief prosecutor of the West Herzegovina Canton Vesna Cavar reminded that the Prosecution in 2010 raised the charge of murder against the known perpetrator Oliver Knezovic and issued an international arrest warrant.

She said that Knezovic has not yet appeared before the court in Siroki Brijeg and that she does not know whether it will occur at the next scheduled hearing on 3 December this year.

"We asked for mutual legal assistance because it is suspected that Knezovic is currently in the Republic of Croatia. That's all I can say. I can not prejudge what will happen in December and when the accused will be brought to the court," said the prosecutor.

After killing the fan of the Sarajevo Soccer Team, Knezovic surrendered and admitted that he shot at him. However, several hours later, under suspicious circumstances he escaped from custody.

In the Bosnian war, Oliver Knezovic was a member of the notorious Convicts Battalion Brigade of the Croatian Defence Army whose commander that time was convicted war criminal Mladen Naletic Tuta.

There are still postwar tensions between the majority Croatian population in western Herzegovina and its capital Sarajevo.

To date, during each match of the Sarajevo Soccer Team fans from the stands chant "Truth for Vedran".

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