March 15, 2019
The judge presiding over the trial for the murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija has announced that she will announce the verdict on April 5.
An provisional verdict will be announced on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the murder of the owner of publications Dnevni Telegraf and Evropljanin (The Daily Telegraph and The European), who was gunned down in Belgrade on 11th April 1999.
Speaking at the culmination of the trial, which began almost four years ago and has included the testimonies of over 100 witnesses, two of the four defendants gave their closing arguments.
Former chief of the Belgrade State Security Centre, Milan Radonjić, who is charged with organising the murder, and former chief intelligence inspector of the State Security Service, Ratko Romić, who is charged with aiding and abetting his ‘Best Man’ Miroslav Kurak, who is charged with actually committing the murder, denied the allegations contained in the indictment and requested that the court bring an acquittal verdict.
The same stance and request were submitted earlier by chief defendent Radomir Marković, former State Security Service chief, and Miroslav Kurak’s lawyer. Kurak is being tried in absentia.
Nevertheless, Milenko Mandić, deputy prosecutor for organised crime, asked that the court convict all four defendants with the harshest possible sentence – 40 years imprisonment.
