In a recent reversal, the Belgrade Court of Appeal in Serbia has acquitted four former members of the ex-Yugoslavian state security service in relation to the 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija.
Ćuruvija, a well-known journalist and owner of the first private daily newspaper in Serbia, Dnevni Telegraf, was killed outside his apartment on April 11, 1999. This occurred shortly after he was labeled a traitor by pro-government media outlets and purportedly blamed for NATO’s attacks on Yugoslavia. The police initially suggested that his murder was a planned assassination orchestrated by the former Serbian spy agency chief, Radmoir Markovic, who passed away in 2006.
The four officers of the security service were arrested in 2014. Following an indictment from the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, they went on trial in June 2015. The prosecution’s case was that these accused had been given the order to kill Ćuruvija by seniors up the command chain.
Although found guilty of the murder in 2019 after a prolonged trial, an appeal was launched shortly after the verdict. The convicts, including Radomir Markovic and Milan Radonjic who were both sentenced to 30 years in prison for instigating the murder, and Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romic also sentenced to 20 years each, were able to appeal based on alleged violations in the criminal procedure. The acquittal process kicked off on the 6th of March, 2023.
According to an announcement on Friday, the court cited lack of solid and sufficient evidence for the acquittal. The court stated that there were no “direct and indirect evidence that would reliably confirm” that the four accused were guilty of the act, beyond a reasonable doubt.
In response to the court’s verdict, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed their deep disappointment. The CPJ, established in 1981, is an organisation primarily focused on advancing press freedom and protecting journalists from threats and harassment. In a recent statement, Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, deemed the court’s decision a “huge blow to justice”.
As the right to freedom of expression continues to be protected as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this case serves as a crucial event for media professionals worldwide as they grapple with their rights and freedoms in an increasingly challenging landscape.