Detectives should investigate new evidence in the Jill Dando case after it was linked to a ruthless Serb assassin, Alastair Campbell has said.
The former No 10 spin doctor wrote in his diaries The Blair Years of his shock at Jill’s death and his concern it was Serb “retaliation” for “our attacks on their media machine”.
Then Prime Minister Tony Blair had been a leading advocate of the 1999 bombing of Serbia in an effort to stop atrocities being committed in Kosovo.
Referring to the Mirror’s investigation into Serb assassin Milorad Ulemek, Mr Campbell said: “The police are under massive pressure and have so much to do to keep us safe that I can understand why historical cases fade with the passage of time.
“But Jill’s murder was a particularly brutal killing of a much loved British broadcaster and I would hope that any new evidence would be taken seriously and examined.”
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When Jill died on April 26, 1999, the Yugoslav war was raging and British planes were bombing Serbia as part of a Nato campaign. Three days earlier, they had targeted the Radio-Television Serbia building in Belgrade, killing 16 employees, including journalists.
It came 48 hours after Nato bombed a separate TV station owned by the late dictator Slobodan Milosovic’s daughter. Jill had made an appeal for Kosovan refugees who were being massacred by Milosevic’s forces. Within hours of her death, a call was made claiming the murder was in response to the bombings.
On the day of Jill’s murder, Campbell described her in his diaries as “easily one of the nicest people on TV”. He wrote: “I worried whether it was Serb retaliation for our attacks on their media machine being part of their military machine being part of their military machine.
Milorad Ulemek is pictured in Belgrade, Serbia (AFP via Getty Images)“Given that Milosevic said much the same about the BBC, I wondered whether they were going to start thinking BBC journalists were fair game. When I mentioned it to TB, he said ‘They would be far more likely to try to take out you.’ Thanks.”
Plaid Cymru’s Justice spokesperson, Liz Saville Roberts MP joined the BBC’s Jennie Bond in calling for police to investigate our findings. She said: “Evidence from the Mirror’s investigation into the death of Jill Dando should be taken seriously by the police. Jill Dando’s family deserve justice after 25 years of unresolved grief – anything that brings them closer to finding the truth must be examined.”
It comes after our probe this week prompted a key witness to identify Ulemek as the man she saw “running for his life” from the direction of the crime just minutes after Jill was killed.
Jill Dando was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff at the time of her death (PA)
A man was seen 'running for his life' from the direction of the crime just minutes after Jill was killed (Daily Mirror)She also identified him as the man she saw in CCTV footage from nearby Putney Bridge Tube station, which was shown to her by police weeks after the murder.
Former Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who served with the British Army in Bosnia and has always had suspicions of a Serb link, said: “New and credible evidence has emerged and there are techniques for investigating this which didn’t exist 25 years ago.
“I stick by what I said all those years ago that the Serb angle on this should be looked at carefully. It’s extremely important that the Met Police look in great detail at the original CCTV and apply the latest techniques.”
Former Home Secretary Lord David Blunkett, who was a Cabinet Member of Tony Blair's Labour government at the time of Jill's murder, said the Met had to act on the Mirror's findings.
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“The evidence adduced so far in this excellent piece of investigatory journalism would certainly warrant a cold case review, a trawl of all possible sources of new evidence, and a rerun of old," he said.
"In all cases of this kind, it is crucial to remember that the real killer is still a danger to others – now and in the future – which is why it matters.”
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