Serbian Basketball Player Who Beat Brooklyn Classmate Released From Prison Early
BELGRADE, Serbia (CBSNewYorK) -- The former college basketball player who savagely beat a fellow student from Brooklyn has been freed from jail two months early.
Miladin Kovacevic was sentenced two years ago to two years in prison in his native Serbia for the 2008 attack on fellow student Bryan Steinhauer, who was beaten into a coma during the fight in a bar near Binghamton University.
Steinhauer suffered skull fractures and a severe brain injury.
Kovacevic was charged with assault in the United States, but jumped bail and fled to Serbia. That country refused to hand him over to the U.S., citing local laws banning extradition, and straining U.S.-Serbian relations at the time.
The Serbian government eventually paid $900,000 to Steinhauer's family as part of an agreement that also called for putting Kovacevic on trial in Belgrade. He began serving his sentence in January 2011.
Kovacevic's release was part of a Serbian government amnesty program that released more than 1,000 prisoners.
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