Hijack ‘soldier’ gets 20 years

Press, 25 June 1979, Page 8

Hijack ‘soldier’ gets 20 years

NZPA-Reuter Chicago Nikola Kavaja, a Serbian nationalist who was forcibly returned to Chicago after an Atlantic hijacking, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for participating in a conspiracy to bomb Yugoslav diplomats. Kavaja and five others were sentenced by Judge Hubert L, Will for the bombing in 1975 of the suburban home of the Yugoslav Consul and plotting to blow up two Yugoslav receptions commemorating the beginning of Yugoslavia's communist regime.

Kavaja, who could receive a sentence of up to 35 years and a fine of up to SUS4O.OOO, was returning to Chicago from New York for the sentencing when he hijacked an American Airlines jet on Wednesday.

He released the passengers in Chicago, then forced the airline to fly him to New York and on to Shannon, Ireland, where he surrendered.

Judge Will said he did not take the hijacking into consideration in the sentencing because other charges probably would be pending in connection with that incident. He added, however: “It is not irrelevant to the kind of person he is. And the kirjd of person he has declared himself to be is a soldier in a peaceful society.” “I was not here yesterday because I was at my job as a professional soldier,” Kavaja told the judge through

an interpreter before sentencing. He said he would continue as long as he could to own and use guns, bombs, and other weapons and use force to free Serbia from communist Yugoslavia.

“I think he said he’s a one-man army,” Judge Will said. “As far as he’s concerned, killing is a perfectly legitimate part of that warfare in which he is engaged.” Judge Will described another defendant, Stojilko Kajevic, 43, a priest, as the intellectual leader of the group without a doubt.

The Free Serbian Orthodox Church priest from Chicago, whose release from jail Kavaja sought during the hijacking, was sentenced to 12 years of a maximum 75-year sentence, with five years probation to follow. Bail was set at 10 per cent of SUSSM pending appeal. Nikola Zivovic, aged 52, of Chicago, and Rados Stevlic, aged 40, of Wayne, both received 10-year sentences.

Zivovic could have been sentenced to a maximum of 55 years, and Stevlic to 65 years. Two other defendants, Bosko Radonjic, of New York City, and Zivitije Savic. of Downers Grove, a Chicago suburb, had pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Radonjic was sentenced to three years of a maximum five-year sentence after pleading guilty to a conspiracy count, Savic to three years of a 10-year maximum after pleading guilty to possession of bombs.