Serbia Convicts State Security Officers of Journalist’s Murder

Slavko Curuvija. Photo: Slavko Curuvija Foundation/Predrag Mitic.

Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday found four former Serbian state security employees guilty after a retrial of the murder in 1999 of journalist and editor Slavko Curuvija, who was known for his opposition to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

The former head of Serbian State Security, Radomir Markovic, and security service officer Milan Radonjic were each sentenced to 30 years in prison, while secret service agents Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurak were each given 20 years in prison. The verdict can be appealed.

The court found that Markovic told Radonjic of the plan to assassinate the journalist, and Radonjic made an agreement with Romic and Kurak to kill Curuvija.

Curuvija was murdered in Belgrade in April 1999, allegedly because of his opposition to Yugoslav President Milosevic. He was shot in the back 12 times in front of the building in which he lived in Belgrade.

Before he was killed, he had been outspoken in criticising Milosevic, openly accusing him of war crimes and running an oppressive regime.

The indictment initially said that an ‘unknown person’ ordered the killing of Curuvija and that Markovic, the former head of Serbian State Security, abetted the crime, while three former security service officers – Romic, Radonjic and Kurak – took part in the organisation and execution of the murder.

Judge Snezana Jovanovic said that the retrial again established that the person who actually shot the journalist remains unknown, as Curuvija’s partner Branka Prpa, who was with him when he was murdered, could not identify the killer.

“It was established that the direct perpetrator was an unknown person through the testimony of Branka Prpa, who was also at the scene and was injured,” judge Jovanovic said.

The Slavko Curuvija Foundation said that the verdict “once again unequivocally confirms that the murder of Slavko Curuvija was organised by the state”, and described it as “an important step in dealing with the politically-motivated crimes of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic”.

“With today’s verdict, the court sent a message that perpetrators of attacks on journalists because of what they have said publicly are not untouchable, even decades afterwards,” the foundation added.

The indictment had initially claimed that Kurak was the direct perpetrator. But the first-instance verdict in the trial in April 2019 said that the journalist was killed someone unknown, rather than by Kurak. This caused Belgrade Appeals Court to quash the initial verdict and order a retrial.

When the retrial began, three of the suspects again pleaded not guilty, while Kurak is on the run and was tried in absentia.

Markovic is already serving a 40-year sentence for the murder of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic and other crimes, while Romic was acquitted alongside Radonjic in September 2017 of the attempted murder of opposition party leader Vuk Draskovic.

The initial trial attracted controversy, as the judges tried on two occasions to dismiss potentially crucial evidence – records of mobile phone communications between the secret service operatives – which according to the prosecution placed them at the scene of the crime. However, their decision was overturned both times.