May 17, 2021
The retrial of those accused of murdering journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija has entered the next stage, during which the prosecution and the defence will clarify their views on written documentation.
One of the key instances during the hearing before the so-called Special Court in Belgrade, held on 11th, 12th and 14th May, was the request of the defence lawyer of three (of the four) accused former members of the State Security service, Rade Marković, Milan Radonjić and Ratko Romić, to set aside from the evidence all material linked to mobile communications between members of the State Security service. The court rejected the lawyer’s request.
The data in question are sourced from mobile phone base stations and show where the accused were located at the time of Ćuruvija’s murder, on 11th April 1999, and the defence has been trying to eliminate that data during the entire course of the trial, which has lasted six years. These data are even cited in the indictment as crowning evidence proving that accused assassins Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak (who is on the run) were in the vicinity of the location of Ćuruvija’s murder at the time the crime was committed.
The defence has considered this data from mobile communications as being “inaccurate and fabricated” since the trial began in 2015.
