Two Croatian ministers and the country’s police chief have been sacked after a young female lawyer was shot dead in broad daylight yesterday in an apparent mafia-ordered execution.

The Prime Minister dismissed the trio — including the interior and justice ministers — after their apparent failure to tackle the rise of organised crime clans.

The Cabinet crisis was sparked after Ivana Hodak, 26, was shot twice in the head and once in the neck in front of her home in central Zagreb on Monday. She died on the way to hospital.

Ms Hodak was the daughter of Zvonimir Hodak, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers, who is representing a former Croatian general recently extradited from Austria on charges of embezzling over €4 million (£3.1 million).

General Vladimir Zagorac is accused of stealing jewels that were intended to fund Croatia's war against ethnic Serbian rebels between 1991 and 1995.

It is believed that the killing was captured on CCTV and witnesses reported seeing the unmasked assassin fleeing the scene, which was in the immediate vicinity of a police station. Officers have questioned more than 50 people but have no leads.

“Organised crime gangs must not be given the impression that they can do whatever they want and enjoy impunity. We are committed to an unrelenting battle against organised crime and the mafia,” Ivo Sanader, the Prime Minister, said.

The assassination comes after a series of attacks on prominent businessmen and journalists who were severely beaten in front of their homes in broad daylight after becoming involved in criminal investigations.

Organised crime has grown in Croatia since the war in the 1990s and several larger criminal groups are believed to have had ties to some political groups in the country, which is expected to join the European Union by 2011.

The Croatian Association of Judges issued a statement condemning Ms Hodak’s murder and gave warning that a failure to resolve the case would have “devastating” consequences.

The dismissal of Berislav Roncevic the Justice Minister, Ana Lovrin, the Interior Minister, and the Chief of Police Marijan Benko, is expected to be approved by Parliament by next week.

Trail of death

— Ivana Hodak, daughter of a prominent Croatian lawyer, was shot dead in the capital, Zagreb , last month. Her death prompted the replacement of the Minister of Justice and Minister for the Interior

— Vinko Rodic, a man aquitted of killing the mafia boss Zlatko Bagaric in 1998, was shot dead in a residential area of the capital in February

— Last year the jailed drug dealer Davor Zecevic was killed by a single shot to the head in front of his girlfriend’s home while on weekend leave from jail

— Last month a car bomb in Zagreb killed the editor of the Nacional newspaper, Ivo Pukanic, as well as his chief marketing executive, Niko Franjic

Source: Times archives

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