May 31, 2020
Next month will see the Appellate Court in Belgrade launch the process of considering appeals against the first-instance verdict for the murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija.
Ćuruvija was shot dead on 11th April 1999, and after a trial lasting almost four years, on 5th April 2019, the High Court in Belgrade sentenced four former members of the State Security Services – Radomir Marković, Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak – to a total of 100 years in prison.
Both defence lawyers and the prosecution appealed against the verdict, which was passed following a re-vote of the judges in the court panel (2:1). The Court of Appeals will hear the appellants at public sessions that will, according to announcements, be held on 7th, 8th and 9th July, but the entire process of bringing a decision on the validity of the first instance verdict could take several months, as this is a complex court case.
Of the three cases of murdered journalists in Serbia over the past 25 years, the murder of the publisher of newspaper Dnevni Telegraf and magazine Evropljanin is the only one to have received an epilogue in court.
