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The Court of Appeals overturned the lower court verdict for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija and returned the case to the lower court for a retrial, citing that the lower court exceeded the indictment by presenting unidentified persons as direct executor and changed the facts described in the indictment.
There has been no verdict for Curuvija’s murder for more than 20 years, and the question is whether the accused will ever be convicted. An even bigger question is whether she will end up in prison after the eventual final verdict, or will she serve her sentence under house arrest due to the lengthy process.
The decision of the Special Department for Organized Crime of the Belgrade Court of Appeals establishes that the first instance verdict is “incomprehensible, the reasons for the verdict are contradictory and that the verdict does not indicate the reasons to prove the facts, which are completely unclear and largely contradictory. ” , which makes it impossible to examine the legality and regularity of the sentence “.
The defendant’s first instance verdict for the murder of Ćuruvija was delivered on April 5, 2019, and Radomir Marković, Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak, tried in absentia, were sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison. According to the conclusions of the Court of Appeals, the defendants were found guilty of facts and actions that the accusation does not contain and about which, during the process, no evidence was presented.
“By including unidentified persons in the operative part of the verdict, who, according to the trial court, participated in the commission of the crime together with the accused as direct perpetrators and adding new acts to the accused Radonjić, Kurak and Romić, the court of first instance is the way to commit the criminal act significantly modified the factual situation that it established in its own opinion, in relation to the factual situation described in the indictment ”, concluded the higher court.
It is also said that it is not clear whether it is an unidentified person or more than one unidentified person, if the same unidentified person is the main …
Veran Matic, chairman of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, told “Blic” that the decision of the Court of Appeals is disappointing, but believes that the new trial will not last long.
– It is difficult to comment when the full text is not seen, the abstract seems to give some space to believe how a new test can be done in a short time. Nowhere in the explanation itself is the evidence presented discussed. The focus is on the explanation of the verdict and the presentation of unidentified persons. Realistically, it can be expected that a new trial process will open only in that part, that one does not start from the beginning and present evidence again. Therefore, the trial itself would be shorter, the existing verdicts would be confirmed with a different explanation and a different definition of the perpetrator, Matić said.
As he adds, the Appeals Chamber could have opened a hearing on that part and rendered a verdict, and not have an extension of decades of agony. Matic says that since the beginning of the case, the investigation before and after October 5, we have had constant obstructions, as well as during the four-year trial.
– Obviously, the State Security Service is trying to save its members to trigger verdicts. She always tried to protect her people. Now, the two convicts are serving their sentences under house arrest, and it may happen that, while the judicial process lasts, they serve the entire sentence under house arrest – continued Matic.
Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the SPO, believes that the defendants will not be convicted in this process, because the trial will continue indefinitely, with, he adds, abundant help from the security services and the judiciary.
– This is seen in the fact that the accused are not imprisoned, although they should be, for the penalties of 20 or 30 years, but they are already in home isolation, which is impossible in our legal system and it happened only in their case. The verdict of the Court of Appeals was drawn up by the first instance verdict, which declared the murderer of Kurak an unidentified person and thus compared the trial with the scene of the leader of Udba, the undisputed organizers and authors of the crime. The only way to avoid punishment was to delay the trial for years and accept Branka Prpa’s testimony that Kurak was not a murderer, although this was indisputably proven in the investigation. That testimony had to be rejected as unreliable, as she was hit on the head with a pistol and fell to the concrete, as she says. From that position, with her face in the concrete and with a head wound, she could not see the face of the murderer or her height, as she testified for some reasons known to her, and useful for the murderers of Slavko asesuruvija – said Drašković .
He adds that an arrest warrant has been issued for Kurak for the murder, but the state is not seeking him because of the blockade of state terrorists, his companions. It says that Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic were the ones who ordered all the political assassinations in the order of state terrorism.
Lawyer Bozo Prelevic told “Blic” that the lack of evidence in this case is in the “police and political sphere.” He understands that the public is somehow outraged and believes that the media have contributed to some extent to public opinion assuring that this is the final verdict.
– It is very difficult for me to admit it, especially as someone who was good to Slavko Ćuruvija, but I think the Court of Appeals is right. The problem is not the first instance verdict, the problem is the lack of evidence and it seems to me that the accusations are not clear enough. The trial court did a construction for which, in essence, the defendants were not sued. When you look at judicial practice, you see that those decisions are always returned for a retrial, Prelević said.
He adds that this does not mean that these defendants will be acquitted, but he is clear that there are people sitting in the dock who had no motive to kill Slavko Ćuruvija. According to him, that reason was that of a marriage that is not among the living, and that at that time was in charge of the SPS and JUL. Prelevic believes that the prosecutor will present the accusation in a better and different way, and it will be easier for the court to prove it.
– This verdict is not a reflection of corruption in the judiciary, but I share the public’s outrage that these cases have not been resolved more quickly. I started this investigation when I was Minister of the Interior. I have to admit that the people who set out to investigate Ćuruvija’s murder were removed from that case very quickly, some of them were later returned. This case has the same problem as the case of the Draskovic assassination attempt, it is not determined who ordered it, and that is the fundamental reason why I resigned as minister in 2002. I am angry with myself for not being able to fight not to stop working in those cases. Certainly, these cases could not happen without the knowledge of the aforementioned married couple – continued Prelević.
Killed at Easter during the bombing
Slavko Ćuruvija, owner and journalist of the “Daily Telegraph”, was assassinated during the attack on April 11, 1999, at Easter, in the passage in front of 35 Svetogorska Street (then Ive Lole Ribara Street). He was killed with 17 shots in the haustor where the marketing service facilities of the “Daily Telegraph” were located, and on the fourth floor was the apartment where he lived. On that fateful day, Slavko Ćuruvija and his single wife Branka Prpa went out for an afternoon walk and lunch with friends. It was Easter and they wanted to spend time together. They returned home around 5 pm They held hands and talked. They entered the house of the building where Ćuruvija had an apartment. Prpa suddenly felt Ćuruvija begin to fall, he thought he had stumbled … but he fell dead.
Foundation: The agony of the family continues
The “Slavko Ćuruvija” Foundation is unpleasantly surprised by the decision of the Court of Appeals – five and a half years after the start of this process – to overturn the first instance verdict for murder and return the case for a new trial. This decision continues the true agony for the family, friends and admirers of the murdered journalist, who have been waiting for justice for more than 21 years, they say from this foundation.
– Since the court of first instance, after four years of trial, plagued with controversial decisions, handed down a sentence in April of last year, the decision of the Court of Appeals has been awaited for almost a year and a half. We remind you that two members of the Department of State Security convicted in the first instance are still under the so-called house arrest, while the state does not show that it is taking any action in relation to the extradition of the defendant Miroslav Kurak, who is a fugitive. We hope that the court of first instance will consider this case as a priority and efficiently – said from the Foundation.
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