Wanted Serb murderer held at Athens Airport

A Serbian man convicted over the 2009 murder of a French soccer supporter in Belgrade was arrested in Greece on Saturday, Greek police said.

Dejan Puzigaca was apprehended at Athens International Airport as he arrived on Wednesday on a flight from Thailand, a police statement said.

The 34-year-old Serbian national, dressed as a monk, showed a fake Slovenian passport.

Police sent his fingerprints to Interpol and it was revealed that he was the subject of an international arrest warrant for the murder of 28-year-old Brice Taton, a French national.

Puzigaca was sentenced to 32 years in absentia by a Serbian court over the murder of Taton, who was attacked in a bar by about 30 people in September 2009 ahead of a Europa League football match between Partizan Belgrade and the French side Toulouse.

Taton sustained head and chest injuries from the iron bars and baseball bats used by the assailants, and he died 12 days later.

Puzigaca and another assailant, Djordje Prelic, were given the stiffest prison sentences as they were believed to have organized the attack.

Prelic was arrested in February 2013 in Spain.

Puzigaca is due to face a Greek prosecutor on Monday.

[AFP]