WE DON’T WANT MONEY, BUT THE KILLER’S NAME

In the 16 years since the two guards were killed at Topčider barracks in circumstances that have not yet been clarified, Janko, Dragan Jakovljević’s father, has mentioned hope countless times. And again now that he and his family don’t give up even after the insults, the threats, but also the court disputes that could have had a completely different course.

The light on the tragedy was turned on with the verdict of the Strasbourg court two days ago. After nine years of deliberations, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the family did not use all legal means in Serbia. And that is the reason why this court rejected the lawsuit of the Guards family filed against the former military examining magistrate Vuk Tufegdzic for the infringement of reputation and on the part of those killed.

– In these 16 years, we have survived everything … except the pain and injustice that is every day. Nobody knows anybody’s pain. They say he’s suing the state and I just want the truth. We survived everything when we went from our village to the court in Belgrade. We bow our heads, we are silent. It is sad that everything that happened and what continues to happen with our children and us who are here – says the father of the murdered soldier Dragan Janko Jakovljević.

Speaking of the latest in a series of verdicts they received, the slain guard’s father says it is a success that the European Court has even considered his lawsuit against Judge Tufegdzic. Respect for the claim is also an indication that they were right.

– We don’t expect anything, some compensation or something like that. We just want to show that we were right and for the public to see the horrors we’ve experienced all these years. He accused us of lying, they belittled us. Our murdered children are almost forgotten, and that is why this and this verdict is important to us, to remind us of the tragedy, the lives of young people lost and the unsolved court case – says the father.

Guards Dragan Jakovljevic and Drazen Milovanovic were found on October 5, 2004, with multiple gunshot wounds, of which they soon died. The first investigative commission of the army concluded that it was first a murder and then a suicide.

This October 5, 19 years later, the families of the dead guards who gathered in front of the Topčider barracks and the entrance to the underground bunker “Karaš”, where two young men were found dead, were thrown from a moving car. Curses, insults and threats were sent by a person who boasted of his involvement in two wars and called the families of the slain guards traitors to the Serbs. Then followed new insults from another moving car.

The family of the murdered guard went to the Strasbourg court because Judge Tufegdžić, with his investigation, but also with what he said publicly and how he acted, damaged the reputation and honor of their dead son. The lawyer for the family, Predrag Savić, tells “Blic” that the decision of the Strasbourg Court is awaited, that not all legal remedies have been exhausted in the country of origin.

– The reason is that we have not yet sued Judge Tufegdždić in a claim for damages. However, parents do not want money, nor do they need it, and they did not want it. The parents asked Tufegdzic to act in accordance with the law and his powers, and not to insult their son as an interim judge, the family lawyer says.

He adds that it is a success that this case reached the seven-member panel of the Court in Strasbourg.

– There are many differences between Anglo-Saxons and our law, and it is difficult to explain to them that in our country, a civil court is bound by a guilty plea. What we did before the European Court is with the aim of drawing attention to the fact that the investigating judge should not defame and insult the aggrieved person and the victim in the criminal process. We have the main case in Strasbourg, which is still about the non-execution of the Constitutional Court’s decision that the authorities act in a timely manner, and they allowed all those accusations to fail. We are directing all our forces towards that case – says lawyer Savić.

Kurir.rs/Blic

Photo by Dragana Udovicic, Private Archive

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