Ivana Buha, the wife of Ljubisa Buha aka Čume – the former leader of the Zemun Clan, which was one of the most powerful crime groups in Serbia in the 1990s – said that her husband was involved in the assassination of Ramiz Delalić aka Ćelo in 2007.
According to an indictment from Kosovar prosecutors, Delalic was killed by the rival crime group led by Naser Kelmendi, allegedly one of the most powerful crime bosses in the region who is currently being tried in Kosovo for organized crime activities. The indictment goes on to say that Buha hired three persons to kill.
Ivana Buha told the journalists that her husband was a good friend of Kelmendi, and that the two of them visited Kelmendi in Sarajevo on multiple occasions.
Don't want to miss our stories?
Sign up for our newsletter.
Don't want to miss our stories?
Sign up for our newsletter.
She says that during one of those visits, when she and her husband stayed Kelmendi’s hotel Casa Grande in Ilidza, Kelmendi asked Buha to provide him with “reliable young men to commit some murders in Bosnia”.
After a couple of days, Buha allegedly sent Serbian mobster Milovan Jeremic to Sarajevo. She says that Jeremic provided Kelmendi with yet another mobster, Milan “Sandokan” Ostojic, who sent members of his criminal gang from the Serbian town of Sabac to commit an assassination.
Delalic was murdered days later.
“Ljubisa was saying that some young men from Sabac commited that murder,” she says.
CIN and OCCRP has previously reported that the murder was committed by Ostojic’s group, composed of Strahinja Raseta, Milan Mitic and Nebojsa “Cetnik” Vukomanovic, based on an indictment against Naser Kelmendi in Kosovo.
Ivana Buha says that when Ostojic was arrested, authorities seized a car from him – an Audi A8. She says that Buha gave Ostojic the very same car as a gift for the successful murder of Ramiz Delalic. According to her, Ljubisa Buha also provided and paid for Ostojic’s defense lawyer.
She also says Buha is in frequent contact with Kelmendi’s son, Besnik, who keeps him abreast of all developments in his father’s trial in Kosovo.
