February 28, 2022
The start of the retrial for the firebombing of the house of journalist Milan Jovanović has been postponed due to one of the defence lawyers of the accused, Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović, having fallen ill. A new attempt to start the trail has been scheduled for 8th April.
The beginning of the trail wasn’t attended by Milan Jovanovic himself, also due to illness, marking the first hearing he’s missed hearing since the accused – including Dragoljub Simonović, a former president of the Belgrade municipality of Grocka and current SNS official – found themselves in court to face charges for setting fire to his house in December 2018.
The retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal in Belgrade, which ordered that the court of first instance correct four oversights of a technical and procedural nature that were spotted in the first instance verdict. That initial verdict last year sentenced Simonović and his fellow defendants to a total of 12 and a half years in prison.
