Man with grenade at Serbian president's office

[May 21, 2009]  BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- A man with a hand grenade entered the Serbian president's headquarters Thursday and threatened to detonate the device if his court case is not settled within the day, officials said.

President Boris Tadic's office refused to say whether he was in the building or if other people remained there.

Police surrounded the headquarters, stopped all traffic in the busy downtown area, and sent a negotiating team to the building.

Security people in the lobby took one grenade away from the middle-aged man, but he still was holding a second grenade, said Jasmina Stojanov, Tadic's press office spokeswoman.

She could not say what the man's motive was. But another government official identified him as Dragan Maric, 57, and said he had announced his plan in an e-mail sent to various government addresses.

The man said in the e-mail that he would blow himself up if a court did not rule in his favor in an unspecified case by 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) Thursday, the official said.

"Even death is better than tyranny," the man said in the e-email, according to the official, who refused to be named because she was not entitled to discuss the incident.

The incident follows U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit Wednesday to Belgrade, which nationalists opposed. The United States recognized Kosovo's declared independence from Serbia last year, a change Serbia has vowed never to accept.

[Associated Press; By JOVANA GEC]

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