Serb soccer boss killed in gangland-style hit

BELGRADE, Oct 2 (Reuters) A Serbian soccer club owner who was a witness in the 2000 attempted murder of then Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic was killed by a remote-controlled bomb today morning.

Goran Mijatovic, 35, owner of first-division FK Bezanija, died along with his bodyguard when a bomb exploded in a stolen car that had been parked next to his.

The blast rattled windows in the Belgrade suburb of Bezanija, damaging several cars.

Mijatovic was the second witness in a high-profile trial to be killed in Belgrade since June. A top witness in the trial for the March 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was found handcuffed, tortured and burned.

He was the second witness in the Djindjic trial to be killed.

Djindjic was allegedly killed by a cabal of underworld and secret police hardliners as revenge for arresting toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic and extraditing him to the Hague war crimes tribunal, and in order to prevent democratic reform.

Milosevic is believed to have ordered the killing of former Serb president Ivan Stambolic and the bid to kill Draskovic, who is now Serbia's foreign minister.

Former special police commander Milorad Ulemek and former secret service chief Radomir Markovic were sentenced to 40 and 15 years respectively for the crimes.

Mijatovic was identified by Belgrade police as a member of the so-called Bezanija Clan, an underworld gang.

REUTERS LL BST1910