June 10, 2024
A former head of the Belgrade Centre of the State Security Service, Milan Radonjić, one of four persons charged with the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, who were acquitted in February by the decision of the Court of Appeal, has sued Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation due to the press release in which we expressed our disagreement with the judgment. Radonjić filed a claim against the Foundation in the amount of RSD 500,000 due to the violation of honour and reputation.
Twenty-five years after the Ćuruvija murder, after nine years of court proceedings, two first-instance judgments finding them guilty and the final acquittal of the defendants due to the lack of evidence, the crime against the journalist and the owner of Dnevni telegraf and Evropljanin remains unpunished and unresolved.
Now, we are witnessing an attempt to eradicate any memory of Ćuruvija and silence the voices that will not consent to impunity and allow things to be forgotten.
This lawsuit is a result of the social atmosphere created by the government. The captured state is not resolving and punishing the crimes done on its behalf. Violence and crime are glorified and encouraged, and villains are celebrated as heroes. Any criticism against current and former sins of the authorities is brutally smothered.
The chase against Slavko Ćuruvija continues, 25 years after he was murdered.
Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation will continue cherishing the memory of the journalist it was named after but will also continue insisting that all attacks against journalists have been punished. Such attacks are being encouraged, at first, with the acquittal and then by intimidating with lawsuits. We will not have it.
