Hit the car with a jeep, Milunka was killed on the spot, and even today she didn’t respond!

Traffic accident, Photo: RINA

“Nothing has been initiated for any reason, we suspect that the prosecution’s passivity is aimed at making the case obsolete for criminal prosecution. That is why we asked if our mother’s life is less valuable than that of others, but we have not received an answer ”.

With these words, Gradimirka Popović, a teacher from Kosovska Mitrovica, recalls that there is still no judicial epilogue of the traffic accident in which her mother Milanka (77) died and she and her brother Jordan (53) survived with serious bodily injuries. The accident, he says, occurred on December 19, 2014. His “Peugeot”, which they were driving from Kopaonik to Bruce, was run over by the jeep of the US embassy in Belgrade, driven by the head of the embassy’s economic department, David Andrew Krzyvda.

In addition to her and her brother, and now the late mother Milanka, there were also two three-and-a-half-year-olds and five in the vehicle, who thankfully passed without serious injuries.

Should diplomatic immunity be lifted?

– Although we, as established in the place, were moving correctly and at the permitted speed, a jeep carrying an American diplomat collided with our car at high speed. Due to the force of the blow, the mother who was in the passenger seat died on the spot, and we were left with severe psychological trauma, except for injuries – continues the Gradimirka story.

She adds indignantly that her family feels discriminated against and that due to the non-reaction of the judicial authorities they consider themselves second-class citizens. It says that the judicial authorities should have initiated the procedure and investigated the case, because it is evident that the American citizen committed a crime under our law. And they did nothing six years later.

– The investigation at the scene of the accident was not done properly either. A US embassy official invoked immunity, although he was not on official duty at the time, but went skiing in Kopaonik with his family. The police and the prosecutor immediately released him, wounded us and, in a state of shock, continued to interrogate and take statements for three or four hours: the teacher from Kosovska Mitrovica continues her indignant story.

She believes that the competent prosecutor’s office in Raska should have acted differently, because an accident occurred with a fatal outcome.

– No one can bring our mother back and that is clear to us, but injustice hurts us. We are outraged by the passivity of the internal judicial bodies, specifically the prosecution. We justifiably doubt that, in this case, the criminal prosecution of a US citizen for a crime with a fatal outcome will become obsolete. Because, apart from the research, almost nothing else has been done. Even during the investigation, more attention was paid to the rights of the perpetrator of the crime, than to the rights and protection of the rights of the victim-victims – concludes Gradimirka, grateful to “Večernji novosti” who, as she emphasizes, were the only ones who wrote about their case.

Apart from the investigation at the scene of the accident and the letter from the Raska Prosecutor’s Office, which sent a request to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to take over the case on May 12, 2016, Gradimirka notes that not a single step has been taken.

– Although the United States Attorney’s Office should have presented a response within six months, whether they accepted or rejected the case, that did not happen, as well as the next move of our judiciary – added Gradimirka.

He sent a request to the Kraljevo public prosecutor’s office, where he says they were obliged to carry out ex officio supervision. He also sent a request to the Ministry of Justice for supervision in the procedure for the violation of the provisions of the law on prosecutors.