Belgrade - Frenchman Brice Tautou died Tuesday morning, 10 days after Serbian football hooligans severely beat him in central Belgrade, local media reported.
Tautou, 28, arrived in Belgrade to watch the September 17 UEFA League match of Toulouse against Partizan Belgrade. Some 30 Serbian thugs attacked him and around a dozen other Toulouse fans in a cafe in central Belgrade.
Several people were slightly injured, but Tautou was beaten so severely that his injuries, including brain trauma and a ruptured aorta, proved fatal despite two massive surgeries, hospital sources told local media.
Serbian police arrested 11 people in connection with the attack two days later, and a court ordered 10 of them held for 30-day detention, while one was allowed to face charges from freedom.
A justice spokeswoman, Ivana Ramic, said earlier that the attackers would face up to the maximum, 40-year prison sentence for a particularly violent aggravated assault resulting in a death.
The attack on Tautou was only one of a series targeting foreigners in Belgrade in recent weeks. One British national was shot in the leg, apparently accidentally, while an Australian and a Lebanese were attacked after being identified as foreigners.
Serbia has been plagued by often brutal and sometimes fatal violence of football hooligans, who are also frequently members of extremist political groups.
Several foreign diplomats, including ambassadors of France and Sweden, expressed outrage over the spate of extremist violence on Belgrade streets.
