A court in Sisak on Monday sentenced 66-year-old Djuro Cehulic from the town of Kutina to a conditional sentence of one year in prison for threatening Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and for illegal possession of weapons.

Sisak Municipal Court judge Domagoj Lovric sentenced Cehulic pending appeal to nine months in prison for threatening Plenkovic and to six months for illegal possession of weapons, handing down a combined sentence of one year in prison, which will not be implemented if he does not commit a new offence in the next three years.

Cehulic made a threatening statement against the prime minister after his close friend, 22-year-old Danijel Bezuk, also from Kutina, on 12 October 2020 opened fire from a machine gun at the government building, wounding police officer Oskar Fiurio who was guarding the entrance to the building, and committed suicide shortly afterwards.

“Danijel was a great guy, he was 23 and acted like a 50-year-old… he wanted to send a message, I don’t think he wanted to kill the police officers, I believe Plenki (Plenkovic) was the target. I would off him despite his four bodyguards,” Cehulic told a TV crew at the time.

Even though his statement was not broadcast, it reached the police, and Cehulic was arrested for making the threat. A search of his family home and holiday house turned up a hand-made pistol with a silencer and an optical weapon-sight, two hand grenades, an air rifle and several hundred pieces of various ammunition.