Ivo Pukanić

Ivo Pukanić (21 January 1961 – 23 October 2008) was a Croatian journalist. He was best known as editor-in-chief of the once influential Croatian political weekly Nacional. In 2008, Pukanić was assassinated by members of Croatian and Serbian organized crime groups.

Life and career

Pukanić was born in Zagreb. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb in 1983, after which he started working for Vjesnik publishing house as a photographer for two of their weekly magazines, Start and Studio.

In 1992 he started his career as a journalist and editor at the popular weekly Globus published by Europapress Holding. He left Globus only three years later in 1995 to start his own weekly publication, Nacional, where he held the post of editor-in-chief until 2000. That same year Pukanić received an award from Croatian Journalists' Association. He also later received an award for a 2003 interview with army general Ante Gotovina, who was at the time on the run due to accusations of war crimes by the ICTY.

Assassination of Ivo Pukanić

The assassination of Ivo Pukanić happened on 23 October 2008 in Zagreb, Croatia, when a remote-detonation car bomb fitted on a motorcycle outside the Nacional newspaper's premises killed the owner of the newspaper, Ivo Pukanić, and Niko Franjić, its marketing manager, and injured two more people. The explosion occurred in the centre of the capital at 18:10 local time (16:10 GMT). Numerous arrests of suspects around the country followed. A subsequent police investigation accused Croatian and Serbian organized crime groups of perpetrating the bombing. Eight people suspected of having connections to organised crime groups were indicted. Six were later convicted over the murders with prison terms ranging from 15 to 40 years.

Details

At 18:10 local time, Pukanić approached his Lexus LS 600h L with Niko Franjić, the Nacional director of marketing. According to first news report, a bomb placed in the trash can next to the car exploded soon after. However, an October 25 special edition of Večernji list dedicated to the bombing put the bomb on a motorcycle parked next to Lexus which then exploded before the two men had a chance to enter the car. Pukanić was instantly killed by the blast while Franjić remained alive for a few more seconds. Two graphic design students from a nearby school were injured by shrapnel. The incident happened on a parking lot in Palmotićeva Street, near Stara Vlaška Street and Josip Lang Square, only two street blocks east of the main Zagreb square, Ban Jelačić Square. Police immediately blocked the traffic around the site of assassination, causing immense traffic jams all over the city center. A man was seen running away from the explosion down Palmotićeva Street. He was described as being in his early thirties, wearing a baseball cap and running with no regard for traffic.