Serbian football fans sentenced to jail for 2009 murder of French nationa

Serbian football fans sentenced to jail for 2009 murder of French nationa

2011-01-26 03:25:04 GMT+7 (ICT)

BELGRADE, SERBIA (BNO NEWS) -- Fifteen Serbian football fans on Tuesday were sentenced to prison for their involvement in the attack that resulted in the death of a French supporter in 2009, the state-run Tanjug news agency reported.

On September 17, 2009, a group of fifteen supporters of the local Partizan Football Club planned and executed an attack on French fans of Toulouse football club. The attack took place in a local bar.

The Serbian men used wooden bats to attack the French citizens who were drinking ahead of Toulouse's 3-2 Europa League victory over Partizan. Brice Taton was severely beaten and subsequently thrown down from a flight of stairs

The French citizen was badly injured and rushed to a hospital. Despite medical treatment, Taton died in a Belgrade hospital 12 days later. Tow other French nationals were wounded but survived.

The four main defendants received sentences ranging between 30 to 35 years. Two of them, Djordje Prelic and Dejan Puzigaca were sentenced in absentia as they are still at large.

Prelic and Puzigaca were sentenced to 35 and 32 years respectively for organizing the attack on the French fan. The other two leaders of the Partizan FC fan group, Ivan Grkovich and Ljubomir Markovich received jail terms of 30 years each for first degree murder.

Vladan Suvajac, Jovan Karbic, Milan Vujovich and Branimir Cetnik were sentenced to 14 years on the same count. Dragan Tomasovic, Stefan Velickovic, Milan Tarlac and Bojan Matijevic were sentenced to 12 years each as well.

The remaining three attackers were sentenced to lenient sentences as their participation was limited in the attack. Stepa Petrovic and Dejan Stankovic were sentenced to five and four years respectively for violent behavior.

Vladimir Boskovic received an eight month sentence in jail and two years of supervised release for participating in the attack. Serbia has witnessed many football-related attacks in the last years.

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