Belgrade: A top Serbian businessman with close ties to Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic`s government was seriously wounded when an unknown gunman shot him in Belgrade on Friday, the state-run RTS television reported.
Milan Beko, a former minister, was shot in the thorax and stomach in front of his house in the Serbian capital`s posh Dedinje neighbourhood, RTS reported.
The 53-year-old was hospitalised in a serious condition and taken into surgery.
Beko was a minister in charge of privatisation in one of the governments of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The latter died in 2006 in The Hague where he was tried by a UN war crime court.
Beko was also member of the leftist JUL party of Milosevic`s wife Mira Markovic.
Beko started his career in a public relations agency after which he founded his own DiBek foreign and local trade firm.
Vucic`s government recently asked Beko to take over the ailing Serbian Railways, but he declined the offer.
