June 30, 2020
The Slavko Curuvija Foundation announced that it expects the Appellate Court to confirm the first-instance verdict for the 1999 murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija, with which four former members of the State Security service were sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison.
The Court of Appeals will begin hearing appeals against that verdict on 7th July. The SĆF calls on the Trial Chamber of the Appellate Court not to return the four-year trial to the beginning, despite the appeals of the defence lawyers of the convicted murderers, and despite the “bemusing appeal of the deputy prosecutor for organised crime”. The Foundation notes that the deputy prosecutor also requested that the verdict be overturned, although the verdict granted everything pursued in the indictment.
Veran Matić, president of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists, said in an interview for Cenzolovka that a new trial for those accused of killing Ćuruvija would be dangerous and would turn everything into a farce.
