Former officials of the Serbian intelligence services were acquitted on Friday of the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija, after almost 25 years of proceedings, the Belgrade Court of Appeal announced.
Slavko Curuvija, owner and editor-in-chief of two independent newspapers, was one of the most influential critical voices in 1990s Serbia. He was shot 13 times outside his home in Belgrade on April 11, 1999. Serbia was then under NATO bombs, an operation launched in response to the brutal repression by the Milosevic regime of the independence rebellion of the Kosovo Albanians.
A few days before his assassination, pro-government media had called the 49-year-old journalist a
“traitor”
for calling on NATO to bomb targets in Serbia.
Former intelligence chief Radomir Markovic and another senior official, Milan Radonjic, were sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Two other senior members of the security services, Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurak, were sentenced to 20 years in prison each.
The prosecutor and defense appealed.
“In the absence of direct and indirect evidence which would reliably confirm the involvement of the accused Markovic, Radonjic, Kurak and Romic”
, the Court of Appeal announced its decision to acquit them.
Radomir Markovic is already serving a 40-year prison sentence for the murder of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic and four other opposition political leaders in the 1990s. This is the first final verdict in Serbia for the murder of a journalist: there is still no judicial epilogue for the murders of journalists Milan Pantic, murdered in 2001, and Dada Vujasinovic, killed in 1994.
“A sad day for journalism”
This decision
“is terribly disturbing for the family, friends, colleagues and admirers of this journalist killed because he publicly criticized the regime of Slobodan Milosevic”
, reacted on X the fund Slavko Curuvija.
“This is a very clear signal that the state is not capable of confronting the darker side of its secret services from the 1990s and that they still have enormous influence on Serbian justice and political life”
, added the fund.
“I am shocked by this scandalous verdict”
, reacted the daughter of the killed journalist to the N1 information site:
“it is proof that the dark forces of the 1990s still govern this country”
.
This acquittal
“represents a hard blow for the fight against impunity for crimes committed against journalists in the Balkans
,” declared Pavol Szalai, representative of the NGO Reporters Without Borders in the Balkans.
“A sad day for journalism
,” reacted American Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill on X.
“I work because I want this country to be organized in such a way that editors and journalists can freely create their own newspapers, that these newspapers can be sold freely and that citizens can read them freely
,” declared Slavko Curuvija shortly before his death.
In 2023, Serbia was 91st out of 180 in the Reporter sans Frontières ranking on press freedom.