Nikola Kavaja

Nikola Kavaja (; 3 October 1932 – 10 November 2008) was a Serbian anti-communist dissident and terrorist. He became known as the "Tito Hunter", due to his repeated assassination attempts on Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. Kavaja served 18 years in prison in the United States for the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 293.

Military and intelligence career Early in his life, Kavaja served in the Yugoslav Air Force (RV i PVO), a branch of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), studying at the Air Force Academy in Pančevo where he rose to the rank of second lieutenant. Later he grew disillusioned with the communist regime that controlled FPR Yugoslavia, and joined a secret anti-communist group. In June 1953, as part of his clandestine activities, he sabotaged gas tanks at the Sombor airport. He evaded arrest, and a man who was not involved in the explosion was tried and executed. When his commander in the secret group was arrested, he deserted the air force. He was arrested by Yugoslav authorities while attempting to cross the border into Austria; however, after serving four years of an -year prison sentence, Kavaja escaped and finally made it to Austria. There, he was detained by Austrian authorities and transferred to an American Army base. After seven months of investigation by American authorities who suspected him of ties to the KGB, Kavaja began to carry out missions for the CIA against Yugoslavia and the USSR, including "sabotage, spying, exposing double agents, assassinations." He planned to demand Kajević's release and then fly to a destination of Kajević's choosing. When he realized that Kajević would not be released, he let the plane's passengers go, retaining only the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. In an odd twist, included in this group was his own lawyer Deyan Ranko Brashich that took the place of the hostages. David Lenevsky, who is the same attorney used by renowned Serbian-American crime lord Vojislav Stanimirović for the Vizcaya Heist case. He forced the crew to fly back from Chicago to JFK Airport in New York City. There, he transferred to a larger plane (a Boeing 707) and demanded to be taken to Johannesburg, South Africa. On the advice of his lawyer David Lenevsky he flew to Ireland, which he was told did not have an extradition agreement with the United States. Hoping for political asylum, Kavaja surrendered in Shannon, Ireland with attorney Deyan Ranko Brashich and Kavaja was returned to America to again face a criminal trial.

Nikola Kavaja was arrested on April 1, 2003, during Operation Sablja following the assassination of Zoran Đinđić. Kavaja was soon released, however.

Filmmaker Milan Knežević made a documentary about Kavaja called Nikola Kavaja - lovac na Tita ("Nikola Kavaja - Tito's hunter"), which was shown at the 1994 Edinburgh Film Festival.

He was an associate of Boško Radonjić and Vojislav Stanimirović, although it was speculated that he was poisoned.