April 30, 2021
Predrag Milovanović, deputy public prosecutor of the Second Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, who represented the indictment in the case of the arson attack on the house of Žig Info portal journalist Milan Jovanović, has been relieved of his duties as deputy public prosecutor, at the initiative of Republic Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac. in order to dedicate himself purely to performing his function as a member of the State Council of Prosecutors (DVT), which he was selected to join late last year.
Dolovac is simultaneously also the president of the State Council of Prosecutors, a body which is tasked, among other things, with proposing and selecting prosecutors and deputy prosecutors.
The first-instance verdict against those accused of firebombing the journalists’ house was brought in February, while an appeal procedure is now underway that prosecutor Milovanović will not be able to participate in. He requested to stay on the case, but the proposal of chief prosecutor Dolovac was accepted by a majority of votes.
Speaking to Cenzolovka, Milovanović said that he could not allow himself to fall into a trap and allow the case to suffer, especially the victims of the arson attack on the house, due to his relationship with certain superiors.
Responding to the decision, the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) called on Prosecutor Dolovac to reconsider the decision regarding Prosecutor Milovanović and contribute to the effective concluding of the case for setting fire to this journalist’s house. The State Council of Prosecutors reacted to an article in Cenzolovka by claiming that proceedings in the case of Milan Jovanović have not been prevented and that the case is now in the hands of the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office.
