Former Croatia coach fined for threatening to kill journalist

Servihoo - Croatia's former national coach Miroslav Blazevic, who led the Balkan country to third place at the World Cup in 1998, was found guilty and fined by a local court for threatening to kill a journalist.

A Zagreb court fined Blazevic rather symbolic 5,000 kunas (650 euros, 820 dollars) for threatening Ivo Pukanic, editor in chief of the independent Nacional weekly, in 1999.

At the time Blazevic, a close ally of the country's late autocratic leader Franjo Tudjman, told a local daily that "for salvation of the Croatian state I would kill Pukanic".

"Nacional's journalists should be knocked down with baseball bats one by one," he told the Vecernji List daily.

The Nacional weekly was a harsh critic of Tudjman's nationalist regime.

The 68-year-old argued at the court that he was speaking "metaphorically" and that he had been "misinterpreted."

"I cannot stand aggression. If someone attacked Pukanic I would defend him," Blazevic said, quoted by the HINA news agency.

Under Croatian law such offences can be punished by up to a three-year jail term but judge Mladen Zeravica said a fine would suffice as Blazevic is someone who has done a lot for Croatia, and he has no previous convictions.

Blazevic currently coaches Croatian first division side Varteks Varazdin.