Dabic Shooting Suspect Arrested, Zdrale Still at Large
Republika Srpska police: suspect in the shooting on Davor Dabic arrested in Sremska Mitrovica, Djordje Zdrale still on the run in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The suspect in the shooting on Davor Dabic in East Sarajevo has been arrested in Sremska Mitrovica, on Serbian territory, where he had been hiding since the attack in early August. The arrest of the 24-year-old from Bijeljina was carried out by officers of Serbia’s Criminal Police Directorate, acting on an international arrest warrant issued by the Banja Luka District Court at the initiative of the Republika Srpska Directorate for Organized and Serious Crime. The case has taken on a cross-border dimension: without cooperation between police on both sides of the Drina, the suspect would have stayed beyond the reach of Republika Srpska’s justice system.
The news was announced today, August 24, at a press conference held by the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior (MUP). Interior Minister Zeljko Budimir and police director Sinisa Kostresevic spoke, publicly linking, for the first time, two attempted murder cases from East Sarajevo: the arrest in Serbia and the escape of a second suspect into the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Two Shootings a Day Apart
According to what Budimir and Kostresevic laid out, the sequence begins on August 2, when Kosta Pandurevic was shot with a firearm on Spasovdanska Street in the municipality of East Novo Sarajevo. Djordje Zdrale is reasonably suspected in that attack and has been on the run since that day.
A day later, on August 3, Davor Dabic was shot on Sime Milutinovica Sarajlije Street in Lukavica, part of East Sarajevo, while walking his dog. The attacker approached him from behind and fired eight shots from a pistol fitted with a silencer, hitting him in the head and the foot. Dabic underwent surgery at the Sarajevo University Clinical Center and, according to a police statement, is out of danger. In the investigative files, he is described as a close associate of Darko Elez.
Kostresevic said at the press conference that both wounded men escaped without life-threatening injuries.
“Fortunately, both of them, Kosta Pandurevic and Davor Dabic, are currently out of danger.”
Following both incidents, the East Sarajevo Police Administration and the Directorate for Organized and Serious Crime carried out, as officials said, more than 100 investigative actions, ranging from searches to the analysis of video surveillance footage. Working with the Bijeljina Police Administration, police identified the person suspected of shooting Dabic and gathered evidence, and since the suspect was already in Serbia by the time he was identified, they launched the procedure for an international arrest warrant. The suspect is now in extradition custody in Serbia, and proceedings for his extradition to Bosnia and Herzegovina are set to follow.
Budimir described the case as part of a wider criminal network.
“This is organized crime, we will see who is behind it. Crime has no religion or nationality, and no borders.”
Where Is Djordje Zdrale Now?
Unlike the suspect in the attack on Dabic, Djordje Zdrale, suspected in the shooting of Pandurevic, has not yet been found. According to the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior, he is hiding in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, beyond the reach of the entity’s own law enforcement, so the search has shifted to cooperation with the Federal Police Administration and the interior ministries of the cantons in the Federation.
“Police have reasonable grounds to suspect that Djordje Zdrale shot Kosta Pandurevic. We are searching for the perpetrator, that is, Zdrale. We are currently trying to locate and arrest Zdrale in coordination with the Federal Police Administration, as well as the interior ministries in the cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Budimir called on the judiciary to work with police to keep dismantling organized criminal groups and asked that the cases not be used for day-to-day political score-settling, arguing that this is a matter of security for all citizens, not a topic for political camps. Officials did not give a date for when the extradition of the suspect from Sremska Mitrovica might be completed.
