Željko Rutović

Željko Rutović was one of the recognizable figures of the Belgrade criminal milieu depicted in 1990s documentary reporting. Decades later, his name returned to court reporting over the 2017 shooting and beating of businessman Predrag Ranković.

1990s public image

Rutović became publicly recognizable as one of the surviving figures associated with the “Vidimo se u čitulji” era. the archive should use that cultural connection as context, not as evidence for crimes that were never adjudicated.

2017 hotel attack case

He was tried in absentia over the attack on Predrag Ranković and at one stage received a final two-year-four-month sentence. After his arrest he exercised the right to a retrial in his presence, which changed the procedural posture of the earlier judgment.

2023 retrial judgment

Reporting from the retrial states that Rutović was sentenced to one year and ten months. Because the sources used here do not establish whether that retrial judgment became final, the status bar says exactly that rather than incorrectly calling it a final sentence.

Death and archive value

Politika’s obituary service records Rutović as 1964–2025. The profile therefore closes as a deceased-person page while retaining the procedural caveat around the last known criminal judgment.