June 17, 2024
Vuk Cvijić, a journalist of independent weekly publication Radar, was punched in the head by Milan Lađević, director of pro-regime newspaper Srpski telegraf, in Belgrade city centre back on 29th May, but it was only two weeks after the fact that the prosecutor’s office took Cvijić’s statement.
It was then that Lađević was also interviewed, and claimed that Cvijić had attacked him, despite the medical report on Cvijić’s injuries that he provided. Pro-regime media outlets, including the national television broadcaster, reported that Cvijić had staged the attack.
The prosecution initially claimed that the attack had not been reported, which is provably false given that Cvijić reported the attack on the very same day to Veran Matić, a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists that also includes representatives of both the prosecutor’s office and the police. The prosecutor’s office nevertheless launched an investigation subsequently.
The police submitted a report of partial investigative activities carried out in connection with this case to the prosecutor’s office, but did not provide the key evidence: a video recording of the attack shot by one of the 20 surveillance cameras located in the vicinity of the site of the attack.
