{"id":197008,"date":"2026-01-01T10:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=197008"},"modified":"2026-01-03T05:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:48:43","slug":"tragic-new-years-eve-in-arilje-branko-killed-predrag-and-ivana-in-the-middle-of-a-cafe-sentenced-to-18-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/tragic-new-years-eve-in-arilje-branko-killed-predrag-and-ivana-in-the-middle-of-a-cafe-sentenced-to-18-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"TRAGIC NEW YEAR\u2019S EVE IN ARILJE! Branko killed Predrag and Ivana in the middle of a caf\u00e9, sentenced to 18 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exactly one year ago, Serbia was shaken by a double murder in Arilje. On New Year\u2019s Eve, Branko Pu\u0161ica brutally murdered spouses Predrag and Ivana Novakovi\u0107, leaving two children without parents.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Branko Pu\u0161ica has been sentenced to a unified prison term of 18 years<\/strong>\u201417 years for the double murder and one year for the illegal production, possession, carrying, and trafficking of weapons and explosives. This is the first-instance verdict of the High Court in U\u017eice, which has been appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the families of Predrag and Ivana, and especially for their children, there is no comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Events of the Night<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To recap, Branko Pu\u0161ica killed Predrag and Ivana in a crowded establishment in Arilje during New Year’s Eve. According to witnesses, Pu\u0161ica behaved strangely the entire time after arriving at the caf\u00e9. He approached Predrag Novakovi\u0107, who was at another table, several times before returning to his own. This was noticed by a woman in the caf\u00e9 who immediately alerted an acquaintance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Predrag fell; Pu\u0161ica fired three more shots into him”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

“He immediately spoke with the late Predrag and Branko Pu\u0161ica regarding his behavior. The late Ivana Novakovi\u0107 also pointed this out to another witness. All of this eventually reached the owner of the establishment, whom a woman asked to calm Pu\u0161ica down because he was causing a problem by approaching Predrag. Following this, the owner went to the table where an acquaintance of Pu\u0161ica was sitting and asked about him, even asking if he should kick him out. The man told the owner that Pu\u0161ica was sitting with his own wife and that it would be rude to throw him out for that,” the indictment stated, among other details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A few minutes later, Pu\u0161ica took a pistol, approached Predrag, and shot him from a close distance. The victim fell to the floor, and the killer stood over him and fired three more shots. He then turned toward Ivana and fired shots into her as well,” the indictment notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witness testimonies included a statement from a man the killer addressed just before the double murder. As he recounted, Pu\u0161ica told him: “He poisoned my family; I will poison his!”<\/strong> The investigation determined that Branko Pu\u0161ica was aware of what he was doing\u2014that he had intent and killed the Novakovi\u0107 couple out of ruthless revenge and animosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one of the hearings, experts stated that Pu\u0161ica had 2.7 per mille of alcohol<\/strong> in his blood, but that this was not decisive in determining his mental state at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivana\u2019s Mother: “A Shameful Verdict”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ivana\u2019s mother, Gorica Blagojevi\u0107<\/strong>, called the verdict shameful, humiliating, and sad. “That man lived in my son-in-law’s house for 15 years. Maybe there was jealousy; maybe he imagined he belonged in that house, and the hatred dates back to when Predrag brought my daughter there to live. We are left with sorrow and wondering what was in his head when he walked past his own three children in the apartment with a gun to go kill Predrag, and then walked five meters through the caf\u00e9 to kill my daughter. He killed them in the most brutal way,” says Gorica. She cannot accept that the judge took into account that Pu\u0161ica was allegedly diminished in capacity due to alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“The moment I came home to tell the children their parents were killed…”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Gorica recounts the horror of finding out: “When I heard the ambulance, I called my older daughter… she eventually told me that Pe\u0111a and Ivana were killed. Two minutes later, I was in front of the caf\u00e9. The image was horrifying; 150 people were there. What I didn’t understand was why none of those 150 people at least threw a chair at him. But when my daughter explained it happened in a split second and nothing could be done, I accepted that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brother\u2019s Sorrow: “Pe\u0111a has been shot…”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Predrag\u2019s brother recalled the moment he saw 140 missed calls. When he finally reached Ivana\u2019s sister, she simply asked if he could come. “I asked how bad it was. She told me: ‘Pe\u0111a has been shot.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He drove toward Arilje through heavy fog, hoping “shot” didn’t mean “killed.” He called a doctor friend in U\u017eice who told him: “My condolences. You lost your brother, and they are fighting for your sister-in-law’s life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I thought I was driving in a dream, convinced I would wake up and call them… but as I got closer to our family home, my legs literally didn’t want to move in that direction. Seeing the huge number of people gathered to give blood, to help… the sobbing, the grief… that\u2019s when you realize it happened.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source\/Photo: <\/strong>Kurir<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exactly one year ago, Serbia was shaken by a double murder in Arilje. On New Year\u2019s Eve, Branko Pu\u0161ica brutally murdered spouses Predrag and Ivana Novakovi\u0107, leaving two children without parents. Branko Pu\u0161ica has been sentenced to a unified prison term of 18 years\u201417 years for the double murder and one year for the illegal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":100000205781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10493,10482,10492,10491],"class_list":["post-197008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serbia","tag-branko-pusica","tag-new-years-eve","tag-predrag-and-ivana-novakovic","tag-tragic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197009,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197008\/revisions\/197009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}