Serbia pays compensation to family of killed former president

Serbia has paid €250,000 in compensation to the family of a former president killed under orders from late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a government official said today.

Ivan Stambolic, who served as Serbia’s president in the 1980s, was kidnapped while jogging in a Belgrade park and executed by state security officers in 2000. His body was dumped in a lime pit in a forest in northern Serbia where it was found in 2003.

Milosevic’s state security chief and his aides were convicted of the crime and sentenced to maximum 40 years in prison each. The court said in the 2006 verdict they acted under orders from Milosevic.

Senior Justice Ministry official Slobodan Homen said today that “this was a horrible precedent where a president had a former president killed using the state security”.

“Stambolic was a political victim, he was liquidated and his body was dumped never to be found,” Homen said.

“This sum is not enough, nothing can compensate what this family went through.”

There was no immediate comment from the Stambolic family.

Stambolic was Milosevic’s political mentor in the 1980s’, when Milosevic rose to power through the ranks of the Serbian Communist Party. But Milosevic soon turned against Stambolic and replaced him, introducing a decade-long rule which was marked with wars and economic decline.

Stambolic had remained a critic of Milosevic throughout his reign. Stambolic disappeared in August 2000 after reports surfaced that he may run against Milosevic at a forthcoming presidential election.

Milosevic lost the vote and was removed from power in a popular revolt in October 2000. He died in 2006 while on a genocide trial at a UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.