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Former Belgrade, Serbian Secret Police Chiefs Arrested
BELGRADE, Feb 24 (News Agencies) - Former Serbian secret police chief Rade Markovic, a close ally of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, has been arrested in Belgrade, Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic confirmed Saturday.
Former Belgrade police chief Branko Djuric also has been arrested in a separate police operation, B-92 radio reported Saturday, quoting sources close to the Serbian government.
Markovic was arrested late Friday along with three others, whose identities were not immediately revealed, B-92 reported earlier Saturday.
Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic is to give a press conference at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) Saturday to discuss the arrest, the state Tanjug news agency quoted Zivkovic as saying.
Police sources, who asked not to be named, said Markovic's name "had been mentioned in connection with the investigation of the assassination of journalist Slavko Curuvija and the October 1999 collision" that claimed the lives of four members of Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement.
Djuric was also taken into custody in connection with the car crash, which took place near Lazarevac, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Belgrade.
Markovic resigned on January 25th, the same day that new Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and his reformist cabinet took office.
Goran Petrovic, a former member of the state security services who had been fired by Milosevic, replaced him.
Markovic, who has headed the SDB secret police since 1998, has been accused by various human rights groups and Milosevic opponents of being behind a series of political killings, including the 1999 murder of Curuvija and the kidnapping of prominent Yugoslav Ivan Stambolic last August.
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