BELGRADE, Serbia, June 28 (UPI) -- Serbia's Supreme Court has upheld jail sentences totaling 207 years given eight men for killing a former president.
All eight were high-ranking secret police officers of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's regime.
The Supreme Court heard appeals by both Belgrade's district prosecutor and defense attorneys in the cases of the assassination of former Serbian President Petar Stambolic and an attempted killing of Vuk Draskovic, then opposition leader to the Milosevic regime. Draskovic is now Serbia's foreign minister, Belgrade's Beta news agency reported.
The court combined sentences for the two cases, Beta said.
Milorad Ulemek, 38, the former chief of Milosevic's para-military police special operations unit, received a 40-year jail sentence for killing Stambolic and the attempted killing of Draskovic. The other seven accomplices were given prison sentences ranging from 2 years to 40 years.
Stambolic was abducted, slain and buried in a wooded area outside Belgrade in August 2000, and Draskovic was attacked in June 2000.
