Revelation from spy chief blows open mystery of Jill Dando’s murder

Serbian security service member Dragan Filipović was behind a “secret reprisal action” in the spring of 1999, which caused “great confusion in Europe”

A former spy chief has revealed that one of his officers was responsible for an attack abroad at around the time TV presenter Jill Dando was killed.

Serbian security service member Dragan Filipović was behind a “secret reprisal action” in the spring of 1999, which caused “great confusion in Europe”. Milorad Ulemek, then 31, led the unit Filipović used to go after opponents of brutal Serbian dictator Slobadan Milosevic.

Dando was shot dead on her doorstep in London on April 26 that year, amid the ongoing Yugoslav war and the bombing of Serbia by British aircraft. Within hours of her death, the BBC received a call claiming her shooting was carried out in response.

A man said: “Tell your Prime Minister, in Belgrade 15 people were killed, so 14 more to go.” It was feared that the former Crimewatch presenter had been chosen as a target because she had publicised a charity appeal for Kosovan refugees less than three weeks earlier.

Filipović admitted he had sent several of his special forces officers into Europe to carry out revenge killings for the bombings, which had began on March 24, 1999.

Known as Major Fića, he wrote: “Among others, Serbs were suspected as potential perpetrators, which resulted in a hunt and increased control of Yugoslav citizens.” A source with knowledge of the Serbian security services told the Mirror he believes Filipović’s claim to be true.

He said: “I have very little doubt that this assassination was planned and executed by some circles in Serbia.”

It comes following calls for police to launch a review after a driver said a man who ran out in front of his van on Fulham Palace Road, near Dando’s home, resembled Ulemek. Another witness also told the Mirror last year that she was sure she had seen the convicted killer on the same street.

British security officials had issued five warnings that Serbian officers may have been planning attacks abroad before her murder. Recently declassified documents show repeated concerns from NATO and the Ministry of Defence in April 1999.

None of the files could be seen by police officers investigating her death, it is understood. In an appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee made on April 6, she referred to Kosovo as a “former Yugoslavian region”, which would likely have enraged Filipović, an ultra-nationalist who viewed it as the “cradle” of his country.

Her appeal was made on behalf of some of Britain’s largest NGOs, which could have made her a genuine target. The Serbian source explained: “It could be perceived as part of a ‘special war’ against Milosevic and Serbia and the secret service could have taken some [action].”

In 1999, Milorad “Legija” Ulemek was a senior member of the Jedinica za specijalne operacije (JSO) – an arm of the Serbian Intelligence Service founded by Filipović, who used it to choose his operatives.

The source believes it was him who specifically chose Ulemek for the unit after they met while fighting previous Yugoslav wars. He is said to have convinced him to shift allegiances from Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s Serbian Volunteer Guard.

He was said to have been with Ulemek when he tried to assassinate Serbian politician Vuk Draskocic six months after Dando’s murder. Ulemek later said in court he asked Filipović’s boss to make himself available for a “special operation” on April 15, 1999, eleven days before she was shot.

Filipović said his boss, then head of the Serbian State Security Services, known as “DB”, gave him “full independence” and granted him all the personnel, spying technology and cash he needed.

Filipović wrote: “My responsibilities included planning, organising and carrying out special intelligence and subversive actions against NATO member states, as well as states that supported them during the attack on Yugoslavia, with the aim of endangering their political stability and combat readiness. The tasks particularly included secret reprisal actions deep inside enemy territory.”

He also explained how his unit operated by revealing details about an aborted operation. After NATO bombings began, he ordered another JSO soldier to kill American philanthropist George Soros, who he saw as a “fanatical enemy of the Serbian people”.

He saw billionaire Soros, who has spent billions funding NGOs promoting progressive and liberal causes globally as being responsible for a sinister globalist network.

Filipović claimed: “In a situation where the NATO aggression, which Soros was the initiator of, was taking place intensively, the justification of a radical approach towards him was not questioned.”

The specialist ammunition used to shoot Dando had never been seen before in the UK. The lack of markings on the bullet left experts unable to identify the type of gun used, suggesting it was a customised weapon. Ulemek, now 57, has been nicknamed “Legionnaire” due to his previous position as a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion, who specialised in sniper combat and sabotage.

It is likely Ulemek smuggled the gun across borders by using his links to gangsters involved in smuggling cigarettes, the source said.

Filipović wrote that he was ordered to halt the plots in June 1999, when a peace treaty was signed. He wrote: “In the meantime, one of the previously initiated actions, although with considerable delay, was successfully implemented, which caused a great confusion in Europe.”

He does not specify what the “radical action” was, though it implies is that it was a state-sponsored assassination.