Convicted killer of French football supporter arrested in Greece

A Serbian man who was one of more than a dozen convicted in the 2009 murder of a French football supporter was arrested in Athens on Saturday, Greek police said.

The father of one of the accused Belgrade killers defends his son in court with a sign "We want the truth", in April 2010 AFP

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 was dressed as a monk and 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 in Belgrade of 28-year-old Brice Taton, a French national.

Puzigaca was sentenced to 32 years in abstentia by a Serbian court over the murder. Taton was accosted by about 30 people in a central Belgrade cafe and severely beat with iron bars and baseball bats.

The attack, in September 2009, was ahead of a Europa League football match between Partizan Belgrade and the French side Toulouse.

Taton sustained head and chest injuries and died 12 days later.

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

Prelic was arrested in February 2013 in Spain, His initial 35-year sentence was reduced to 15 years after a decision of an appeals court in Belgrade in January 2012.

Ivan Grkovic and Ljubomir Markovic received 30-year prison terms.

During the ten-month trial, obviously scared witness – including several French nationals and two in protective custody - often changed their testimony, and no one shed light on who beat Taton.

Puzigaca will face the Greek district attorney on Monday.