BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbia’s former state prosecutor was arrested Friday on suspicion he belonged to a criminal gang linked to former President Slobodan Milosevic, police said.

Rade Terzic was arrested for allegedly helping members of Belgrade’s “Zemun clan” evade justice while he was in office, between 2001 and 2003.

Members of the gang were later convicted of various crimes, included the killing of Serbia’s first democratic prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, in 2003 and former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic in 2000.

Police said Terzic helped clan members get released from jail and skip court proceedings.

Milosevic was believed to have used the gang members as hit men against his political opponents. Several were also members of Milosevic’s elite Red Berets paramilitary unit set up during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s.

Milosevic was ousted in a popular revolt in October 2000 and later sent to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges stemming from his role in the wars during the breakup of Yugoslavia. He died of a heart attack in his prison cell last year before his trial was completed.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)