The sum that pro-regime tabloid owner Dragan J. Vucicevic was ordered by the court to pay as damages for insults against a journalists has been paid to the Second Basic Court in Belgrade, paving the way for him to be released from prison, the daily Novosti learns.
Vucicevic reported to prison on Monday to serve a six month sentence for refusing to pay damages awarded by a court under a private lawsuit filed for insults against a journalist.
A court ordered the owner and editor of the Informer tabloid to pay damages after finding him guilty of making offensive remarks in Twitter posts against then Director of N1 TV Jugoslav Cosic under a lawsuit filed by Cosic.
Vucicevic claims that the court order to pay damages of 200,000 Dinars (1 Euro – 117 Dinars) or serve the prison sentence was politically motivated while law experts recall that he the law suit was not a criminal case and that he could have avoided going to jail by paying the damages as he has done several times earlier following similar lawsuits.
The tabloid Infomer said the sum was paid to the court by Vucicevic’s partner Marija Djurisic, on her own initiative, so he would be released from prison.
Djurisic said she decided to do this because Vucicevic has health problems.
At a press conference he held before reporting to prison Vucicevic repeatedly claimed that he was convicted of “a verbal delict.”
“In this particular case was I politically convicted because I get in the way of some centers of power,” said Vucicevic who went on a hunger strike in prison.
