[JURIST] The Serbian Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld 40-year prison sentences for four former members of a special police unit that took orders from then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] to kill ex-Serb President Ivan Stambolic [Guardian obituary] in August 2000. Belgrade's special court convicted eight men of the assassination last year [JURIST report], sentencing them each to 4 to 40 years in prison. The same eight men were also convicted of the attempted assassination of opposition leader Vuk Draskovic [Wikipedia profile] after Milosevic felt that both Stambolic and Draskovic were threats to his power at the time.

Milorad Ulemek [Wikipedia profile], the former chief of the Serbian police special operations unit that organized Stambolic's assassination, also faces trial in Belgrade on charges that he organized the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic [BBC obituary]. Milosevic faced war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] before his death [JURIST report] earlier this year. UPI has more.