The Belgrade crime police, in cooperation with the Security and Information Agency, arrested two persons suspected of attacking the columnist of the Vreme weekly, Teofil Pancic, the Interior Ministry stated on Aug. 3.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told BETA that the police have arrested Danilo Zuza, 19, and Milos Mladenovic, 18, from Belgrade, and placed them in police custody for 48 hours, after which they will be brought before an investigating judge.

Dacic said the identity of the suspects has been confirmed on the basis of a DNA analysis, since traces of the attackers' DNA were found on the object with which Pancic was beaten.

He said it was difficult to establish the identity of the perpetrators, because the security cameras on the surrounding buildings in Zemun, where the incident took place, recorded the attackers from the back.

"The perpetrators of this crime could not have been identified because they were recorded from the back. Help was needed from eyewitnesses or from those who had any additional information," Dacic said.

He added that the police have questioned the suspected attackers and that, after a DNA match, they found direct evidence on the basis of which they arrested the attackers.

Teofil Pancic was beaten on July 24 in a public transport bus in the Belgrade quarter of Zemun.

He was beaten by two young men with a metal rod. He sustained injuries to the head and arm.