Man sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder of businessman

A man who attempted to murder a top Serbian businessman with close ties to President Aleksandar Vucic was jailed by a Belgrade court on Friday for 10 years.

Milan Beko, a former minister, was seriously wounded when he was shot by a gunman in front of his house in the Serbian capital in November 2014.

The court convicted Aleksandar Zdravkovic of attempted murder but cleared co-defendant Maja Adrovac of being his accomplice, state-run RTS television reported. The verdicts can be appealed.

Beko, 58, was a minister in charge of privatisation in one of the governments of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

He was a member of the leftist JUL party of Milosevic’s wife Mira Markovic.

Beko started his career in a public relations agency before starting his own business importing and distributing consumer goods and medicines — one of the biggest such firms in the Balkans.

While Vucic was prime minister the government asked Beko to take over the ailing Serbian Railways, but he declined the offer.

(AFP)