The top defendant, Zeljko Milovanovic, got the maximum sentence of 40 years in jail. The other five who were involved in the killing were handed between 15 and 33 years.
Croatian journalist and publisher Ivo Pukanic and his associate Niko Franjic were killed by a bomb planted under his car in central Zagreb in October 2008.
Milovanovic's group was sentenced for carrying out the killings, allegedly on orders from the Serbian crime boss Sreten Jocic.
Jocic is on trial in Belgrade for his role in the Pukanic killing, on allegations that he paid the killers 1.5 million euros (2 million dollars) for the hit.
One of the most powerful crime figures in the Balkans, Jocic was sentenced in June in Belgrade to 15 years for ordering another murder, in 1995.
Pukanic gained a name in the Balkans as an investigative journalist who wrote about organized crime and its links with the political elite. He started and published the Nacional weekly.
According to Wednesday's verdict and Croatian prosecutors, Pukanic was killed to stop him from publishing more stories."
Monsters and Critics
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