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The former president of the municipality of Grocka, Dragoljub Simonović, was sentenced, in the first instance procedure, to four years and three months in prison for inciting the burning of the house of the journalist of the Zig Info Milan Jovanović portal on December 12, 2018 in Vrčin.
Defendant Aleksandar Marinković, who was the perpetrator and is a fugitive, was sentenced to the same sentence, while the second defendant, Vladimir Mihailović, who was a mediator, was given four years.
During the explanation of the verdict, Judge Slavko Žugić stated that he went through a thorny path of this process, because there were obstructions all the time, especially the defense lawyers of the accused, some of whom tried to judge by order of the President. .
After those words, Simonović and his defense attorneys left the courtroom.
Prosecutor Predrag Milovanovic, who acted in the trial against Simonovic, said that the sentence of four years and three months in prison today “represents a small victory for the institutions”, but that we must wait for it to be final.
In a statement to the press in front of the Belgrade Palace of Justice, Milovanovic announced that he would appeal the amount of the sentence, and that he would ask that it be “a maximum of eight years”.
He stressed that this punishment should be a “deterrent message” that such crimes are not repeated and that it will thus contribute to a “better tomorrow.”
Jovanovic: Verdict “Journal of Media Freedom in Serbia”
After the verdict was delivered, Jovanovic thanked everyone who helped him rebuild the house, saying he didn’t want that to happen to anyone. “Now I live and work under police protection, I feel quite safe with them, I don’t know how long it will last, I don’t want any of you to have that protection, I want you to work and write freely,” he said. he told reporters.
Jovanovic assessed the verdict against Simonovic as “a newspaper for freedom of the press in Serbia”.
“I accept being a victim if it helps the younger colleagues to continue working honestly, in better conditions and without fear,” Jovanovic said in front of the Palace of Justice.
According to him, who knows how the case would have been solved if he had not been in the limelight of journalists from Serbia and Europe.
He noted that he was very grateful to the journalists for their support, as well as to the donors who helped rebuild the house.
Like he said, if it weren’t for that, it might have ended up somewhere under the bridge.
He said that Simonović was not protected in that procedure by the Serbian Progressive Party party brochure, but that the second instance procedure should be awaited and whether the sentence would be confirmed.
Jovanovic said that in his remarks after the main hearings, he did not say that Simonovic was protected in that proceeding, as Judge Slavko Zugic thought, which he had as a comment when he announced the verdict.
“I did not think I was protected in this proceeding, but earlier when I filed numerous criminal charges for embezzlement against Simonović, but they were not prosecuted, but remained somewhere in the drawer,” he said.
Veran Matić claimed that the most that has been done at the moment is that he is the hero of the judge who managed to face all obstacles in the process.
NUNS ‘Zeljko Bodrozic said he hopes the Court of Appeals will increase these sentences because it has been irrefutably proven that they are a group that wanted to put Jovanovic’s life in danger and that they implemented that plan, fortunately without human victims.
UNS President Vladimir Radomirovic says this verdict shows that the state can and can protect journalists whenever it wants. “Without a doubt, this is a good message for all of us that we must be united and only united can we face all pressures and threats,” he says.
According to the indictment, the house of the journalist of the “Zig Info” portal, Milan Jovanović, was set on fire due to the critical texts, by order of Dragoljub Simonović, who was the president of the municipality of Grocka at the time of the crime.
By the way, from day one, Jovanović flagged Dragoljub Simonović as guilty. The investigation established that the president of the municipality of Grocka ordered the policeman of the police intervention unit, Vladimir Mihailović, to set his wife on fire to hire a woman in exchange.
The police then hired Igor Novaković, who gave the address to Aleksandar Marinković and Bojana Cvetković Šijacki. On the night of December 12, 2018, Marinkovic threw two Molotov cocktails at the house.
Jovanovic was saved by his wife, who pulled him out into the flames and smoke at the last moment.
Simonovic’s defense, in addition to alleging that his client had nothing to do with the fire, tried to dispute throughout the trial that Milan Jovanovic was a journalist, although Jovanovic wrote for Grocka’s local media for six years about the embezzlement with which he linked Dragoljub Simonovic.
It should be remembered that Simonović was arrested after great pressure from international institutions, and the first man of the SNS and President Vučić informed the public about his arrest. He spent 40 days in custody. Despite numerous evidence, Simonović appeared to the press after a hearing as the victim of a conspiracy.
