Origin and youth Kavaja was born in 1932, in
Peć,
Zeta Banovina,
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to
gendarmerie father Mitar Kavaja and mother Milja (née
Čađenović). Mitar, as a member of the gendarmery, fought numerous times with
kachaks (Albanian brigands). Nikola's paternal grandfather was a
perjanik (personal guard) of King
Nikola I of Montenegro.
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. ==See also==