Kristijan Golubović

Early life, 1980s

Born to Srboljub Golubović and Milanka Golubović, Serb gastarbeiters living in Munich, Golubović did not meet his father until grade school since he was away serving a long-term prison sentence for taking part in a robbery with deadly outcome. His mother was a stewardess at JAT. His father was imprisoned in Goli Otok prison. Notable mafia boss Ljuba Zemunac was the godfather at Golubović's baptism.

In the mid-1980s Golubović befriended Joca Amsterdam. In 1985 he befriended a Greek businessman whom he met through his godfather Ljuba Zemunac in Frankfurt.

Golubović moved to Belgrade, SR Serbia with his mother and sister in 1987; first settling in the Zvezdara neighbourhood and then moving to 50 Braće Jerković Street in Voždovac. Already no stranger to various juvenile delinquent activity, the youngster continued along the same path with street fighting, often involving knives and guns. He also started painting.

In December 1987, Golubović beat up a patron at a kafana in Boleč.

In May 1989, he instigated a fist fight versus Slavko "Mija Pijuk" Mijović (Mija the Pickaxe, the godfather of notorious gangster Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović) in front of Disco Luv in the Belgrade neighbourhood of Voždovac. Mija Pijuk's bodyguard Safet "Džimi" Buljuku began firing shots at Golubović, hitting him in the legs. Later that year, in October 1989, Golubović initiated a brawl at the Branko Krsmanović Club leading to several shots being fired as well. He soon graduated to organized crime and gang-related activity.

1990s

In the early morning hours of Sunday, 25 February 1990, Golubović was one of the perpetrators of an infamous act of violence in Belgrade's Hotel Mažestik. Along with his best friend at the time Dragan "Gagi" Nikolić, a heavily armed Golubović burst into the hotel's disco bar looking for a rival gangster. Since they didn't find him, 24-year-old Nikolić and 20-year-old Golubović shot up and ransacked the place, destroying it in the process before fleeing the scene. Since the hotel's disco bar was a favourite mobster hangout, the incident gained them notoriety in the underworld, considering that many prominent and powerful mob figures were present to witness the shooting.

To escape prosecution in Serbia, Golubović went back to Germany, but soon found himself serving a three-year sentence in Düsseldorf on an armed robbery charge from a few years earlier. Due to being underage when the robbery was committed, he served the sentence in a juvenile prison. In 1993, German authorities extradited Golubović back to Serbia where he was wanted for a variety of criminal acts from the 1988–1990 period.

He was friends with Milorad Ulemek and has said that though he maintained relations with Arkan through Ulemek, he was not "one of Arkan's". When he escaped from a Belgrade court, Ulemek sent him to Erdut to the headquarters of the Serbian Volunteer Guard (Arkanovi Tigrovi), there he was asked to fight for Arkan, but Golubović has said that he declined. Arkan asked Golubović to assassinate Serbian politician Vojislav Šešelj, but he refused.

Golubović married Danijela Đukić and had a son Lazar with her while in Belgrade.

On 23 July 1994, Golubović had an altercation with Milorad Majkić, owner of Casino Aleksandar, in Majkić's casino at Čumićevo sokače. Majkić claimed Golubović tried to extort DM10,000 from him.

Golubović left Serbia for Greece to avoid prison. There he became the leader of a Yugoslav group that worked in Athens; Safet Buljuku and Milorad Hauk were two of his companions.

Golubović was featured in a 1996 documentary about Serbia's underworld called Vidimo se u čitulji that was filmed 1994–1996. He is one of only a few individuals, out of dozens featured in the film, still alive today.

2000s

In 2002 he escaped from Malandrino, a Greek prison where he was sentenced to 14 and a half years for stealing two Mercedes-Benz cars, and an armed robbery. During his time in prison, he maintained a relationship with Arkan's daughter Anđela Ražnatović; he said he wanted to marry her but the relation was short.

Golubović got arrested in Greece on 25 December 2002 on a Serbian arrest warrant because of the criminal citation stemming from the July 1994 incident with Milorad Majkić. The citation claimed Golubovic slapped Majkic while trying to extort DM10,000 from him. Following a three-and-a-half month stay in detention, he got extradited to Serbia on 16 April 2003. At the first court date in May 2003, Golubovic denied extorting Majic but admitted to slapping him.

He was arrested in Operation Sablja, a crackdown on organized crime in Serbia following Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić's assassination. He was arrested for being the leader of a criminal group that extorted 14,000 € from a businessman from Sremska Mitrovica; the sentence was initially 6 years, but the case ended with 1 and a half year.

On the night of 17 March 2004, Golubović and famous Serbian turbo-folk singer Ceca Ražnatović (widow of the murdered Arkan) gathered protesters in front of the government building in Belgrade to rally against the situation in Kosovo where more than 36 Serbian Orthodox churches had been burned the same day in an outbreak of Muslim Albanian violence against the Serb natives of the province.

On 12 December 2005, Golubović got sentenced to six years of prison by the Special Court in Belgrade on illegal arms and racketeering charges of trying to extort €15,000 from Petar Žeravić, a former policeman from Sremska Mitrovica from April to June 2005 and the extortion of €3,000 and gold jewelry theft from the Arsićs, a married couple of jewelers from Aranđelovac. The case was appealed ant the sentence got reduced to four and a half years, which he served at Zabela prison in Požarevac.

On 9 January 2009, he was released from the Požarevac prison where he had spent four and a half years. He made a rap song together with Elitni odredi called "Jack i Chivas" (Jack Daniels and Chivas Regal). He was denied entry to Croatia in 2009 when he was going to fight in the "Millenium Fighting Challenge" MMA event held in Split, mayor Zeljko Kerum denied his entrance and police were ready to stop Golubović if he would enter Croatia. Kerum said "He has a history of Crime and suspicious relations with the criminal world is not welcomed to Split or Croatia, nor be a sport example".

On 16 January 2010, Golubović, his mother and five other members of his criminal group were arrested in Belgrade on charges of narcotics trade in Novi Pazar and Belgrade starting in August 2009. He and his two companions were intercepted at a drug exchange of 25 grams of heroin when they exited Saint Mark's Church. He had the previous week been stopped by police who found 10 grams of heroin in his Toyota Land Cruiser. His friend in the car claimed the heroin was his and Golubović was held for 4 hours before being set free, his friend is awaiting trial. The police then searched his home in Višnjica and found a gun and ammunition without a serial number, a Beretta was found in his mother's house. He is to be sentenced for narcotics trade, illegal arms and explosive possession. They are all currently (April) in the central prison of Belgrade. He tried suicide by hanging in his cell the days following the arrest, the motive of the suicide attempt was that he felt devastated that he had caused the arrest of his mother who had nothing to do with this. She is quoted as having said "I should have aborted you". He shares cells with "Elez gang"-leader Darko Elez and Zemun clan hitman Nikola Bajić. His wife was briefly held in March for the finding of a land mine in her car. In December 2010 he was sentenced to seven years.

2010s

During the 2010s, Kristijan was constantly in and out of prison, awaiting trial. In early January of 2016, Kristijan released a rap song with Deniro called Živim kao Šef. Also, on May 9, he had his third mixed martial arts fight, returning to the sport 6 years after his previous fight, which he won by disqualification. It was held in Vienna, Austria, against Agim Abdullahu. He lost the fight by submitting to the guillotine choke in the first round. After the fight, Kristijan made statements after the fight and on social media that the fight was rigged and unfair, claiming it was the referee's fault. On August 27, 2015, Golubović entered the famous Serbian reality show Farma, being in the sixth season of the show. He arrived at the very first day, before getting ejected on his 92nd day. He returned on the 103rd day, only to 'walk out' and leave on his 122nd day. On March 16th, Golubović was sentenced to 4 years and 1 month in the Zabela prison. While in prison, on October 9, Golubović released another rap song called Moj Czas along with a fellow rapper from Poland called Brex. He is currently serving his sentence in Zabela.

Popular culture

In 1993 he appeared on the album Zbogom, Srbijo by Serbian band Riblja Čorba, singing with band's frontman Bora Đorđević in the song "Kamenko i Kremenko" (literally, Kamenko and Kremenko are the Serbian names of Fred and Barney from The Flintstones, but the song actually describes crimes of Serbian soldiers during the Yugoslav Wars).