[JURIST] Former Serbian chief of state security Radomir Markovic was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday for his role in a 1999 assassination attempt on then-Yugoslav opposition leader Vuk Draskovic [BBC profile]. The Supreme Court of Serbia also sentenced ten other individuals, including special police commander Milorad Ulemek [JURIST news archive], for orchestrating a highway crash intended to kill Draskovic. Draskovic survived and later went on to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Serbia-Montenegro. AP has more.

The high court tried Markovic after overturning numerous previous convictions related to the 1999 assassination attempt. In 2005, Markovic was among 10 former members of the Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] regime sentenced to jail [JURIST report] for the assassination plot. Markovic was sentenced to 10 years for covering up the plot. He was originally convicted in 2003 but that verdict was overturned on appeal.