The Supreme Court of Serbia found, among other things, that the judges in the trial for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija violated the law in favor of the defendants by factually misrepresenting decisive facts in the verdict
President of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists Veran Matić he welcomed the verdict Supreme Court of Serbia which established that there was a violation of the law in the two most important segments of the indictment and during the trial itself for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija.
One violation refers to the testimony of the key witness, who was stated in the acquittal of the Appellate Chamber that he did not stick to his statements at the trial, even though the minutes of the trial show the exact opposite – that he stuck to his statements.
The same violation of the law was noted in connection with the testimonies of four other witnesses, reports N1.
By judgment number Kzz OK 38-2024 of 13.10.2024. , the Supreme Court of Serbia partially adopted the request for the protection of the legality of the public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, KTŽ 166-24 dated September 2, 2024. year.
With that judgment, it was determined that the Chamber Court of Appeal in Belgrade, Special Department for Organized Crime, composed of: Vesna Petrović, president of the panel, Nada Hadži Perić, Dragan Ćesarović, Marko Jocić and Dušanka Đorđević, by judgment Kž1-Po1 9/22 of 04/19/2023. violated the law in the sense of Article 438, paragraph 2, item 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in favor of the defendants Radomir Marković.
The Supreme Court of Serbia also found that the aforementioned judges violated the law in favor of the defendants by factually misrepresenting decisive facts in the judgment, both in relation to the statements of key witnesses, and in relation to the “Report on dubbing and forensic analysis and review of stored data on telephone communication” dated 12.02.2012. year.
That report essentially represents an analysis of mutual communications in the period from 09.04. until April 12, 1999. year between Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak, whose phone numbers are exhaustively listed, as well as the phone card number of the defendant Radomir Marković, with all data on the time, type of traffic, duration, cells and addresses of the base stations through which communication was made, as well as analysis of communications based on the unique identification number of the telephone device (IMEI).
With this verdict, the legal proceedings against the aforementioned defendants have ended, because Criminal Procedure Code prescribed that the Supreme Court, when the judgment determines that there is a violation of the law, cannot affect the validity of the contested decision to the detriment of the defendants.
However, it remains an open question whether the members of the Chamber of the Special Department of the Court of Appeal, by passing the acquittal verdict, only violated the law or whether they also violated it, which could be subject to criminal liability, said Veran Matić.
“This verdict does not bring satisfaction to anyone. Some defendants have filed several lawsuits against those who criticized the verdict, which, according to the verdict of the Supreme Court of Serbia, constituted a significant violation of the provisions of the criminal procedure. The state and competent institutions owe the family of Slavko Ćuruvija the truth about the principals and killers, and not just a statement about the violation of the law when the defendants were released. the full truth is owed to the media company they worked in, to them and their families. Just as the acquittal of the Appellate Chamber was not the end of this process, this Supreme Court verdict must not be the end of it either, but the beginning of a new phase in determining responsibility for the epilogue of the trial, but also the continuation of the investigation that will determine all the facts about the killers and those who ordered them,” Matić pointed out.
Source: Vreme
