Žarko Laušević

Žarko Laušević (Serbian Cyrillic: Жарко Лаушевић, Serbian pronunciation: [ʒǎːrkɔ lâuʃɛʋitɕ]) (born 19 January 1960 in Cetinje, Montenegro, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian actor. Considered to be one of the most talented actors of his generation, he became a leading actor early in his career. By the age of 33, he was a major star across the former Yugoslavia on both stage and screen, displaying a wide range of dramatic skills.

In July 1993, Laušević entered into a quarrel with a group of local youths, together with his brother. This escalated into a fist fight, culminating in Laušević firing multiple rounds from his handgun, killing two of the youths and seriously wounding one. Sentenced by a Montenegrin (republic) court to prison initially, his conviction was overturned by the Yugoslav (appellate) court on the grounds that the first-instance court had improperly dismissed Laušević's self-defense argument, and the punishment was drastically reduced. Laušević served 4 years and 7 months in prison before his release. But he faced further legal battles. There were appeals by the Montenegrin prosecution, numerous retrials and inconsistent, ad hoc rulings by the Montenegrin court system. In 2001, the prison sentence was reinstated to 13 years by the Montenegrin courts.