Yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade opened its five-day session to decide on the appeal against the first-instance verdict of the Specialized Court for Organized Crime for the murder of journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija on 11 April 1999.
The reporting judge read the most important details of the first-instance judgment, and then the deputy prosecutor substantiated the appeal. He stated that he believed the first-instance court did not consider all evidence indicating that the defendants Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak murdered journalist Slavko Ćuruvija by order of Radomir Marković and Milan Radonjić.
Namely, the court of the first instance, contrary to what was written in the indictment, ruled that an NN, an unidentified person, committed the murder, as the court considered there was no evidence that Romić and Kurak did that directly.
The Deputy prosecutor believes that the Court of Appeal should hold a hearing and include in the evidence testimonies and evidence that the first-instance court rejected and punish all defendants with 40 years of prison each.
The trial continues today with the presenting of the defence evidence by the defendants and their lawyers.
