It was marked by two first-degree verdicts that were passed twice - in 2019 and 2021. In the fight for justice, the fight against impunity, but also to tear Serbian society out from the jaws of the sinister past, four former members of State Security were sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison. Radomir Marković, former head of the State Security Service (SDB), who has been in prison since 2001 for other political murders for which he was sentenced to 40 years, was sentenced to 30 years.
Milan Radonjić, former head of the Belgrade Department of the State Security, was also sentenced to 30 years. Ratko Romić, former chief inspector of the Second Department of the State Security Service, was sentenced to 20 years. The same sentence was imposed on former State Security member Miroslav Kurak, who was named in the indictment as the person who pulled the trigger. Kurak remains at large.
Last December the Appellate panel decided to open hearings for submission of evidence in March of 2023. Many watersheds are poured into the trial for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, and the final verdict will provide a judicial backbone for Serbian society, democracy, free media and freedom of speech. The decision of the Court of Appeal will be final and decisive.
"In these weeks our past, present and future collide. That's probably why they take our mobile phones at the entrance to the court so that we can spend hours in a time capsule of the nineties," says Veran Matić, president of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists in Serbia.
The trial is being held in the Special Department of the Higher Court for Organized Crime in Belgrade, which has conditions for special security measures, since testimonies were taken from three previously convicted killers for a series of political murders, including the one that shattered hope in Serbia. On March 12, 2003, they killed the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Serbia – Dr Zoran Đinđić, the leader of the opposition who, after a decade long struggle, brought down the regime of Slobodan Milošević in 2000.
In the murder case of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, the trial against the evil of the deep state of Slobodan Milošević's rule, key testimonies come from people whose appearances reflect the death they sowed around them.
To remove, meaning to kill
Crown witness, convicted murderer, Milorad Ulemek is a former commander of the Special Operations Unit that worked under the auspices of the State Security. In front of the court panel, at the beginning of March, he persistently repeated "I have nothing to add or take away". He did not want to repeat his earlier testimony, nor to answer questions from either the prosecution or the defense.
Considering his power, influence and high position in the ranks of the State Security, whose members are now on trial, Milorad Ulemek’s testimony is the most significant in the process.
Milorad Ulemek told the prosecutor in 2014 that in March 1999, the former head the State Security Service (SDB), Radomir Marković, asked: "whether the unit can and is capable of carrying out a special task", "that it is necessary to remove one person which is currently seriously threatening the security of the state with its hostile activities". To remove, meaning - to kill.
Ulemek replied that due to his military engagement in Kosovo, he could not allocate people to come to Belgrade and participate in the operation that Marković requested. Ulemek said that he heard about Ćuruvija from Marković in 2000, when he was hired to help in one arrest, and when Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak were designated as "navigators" (operatives from the State Security who in the field pinpoint who should be arrested). According to the testimony, when Ulemek asked Marković who the "navigators" would be, he answered "those two who killed Ćuruvija".
“In the current trial, which is taking place before the panel of the Court of Appeal, we have not yet been able to see new evidence, nor a convincing challenge to the earlier evidence on the basis of which the accused were found guilty in the two first-instance verdicts and sentenced to a total of one hundred years in prison. The panel of the Court of Appeal wanted to separately consider the details from the testimony of Milorad Ulemek and Aleksandar and Miloš Simović. It was expected that Ulemek would stand behind his earlier statements, which is what he did. He did not retract the earlier statement he legally gave to the deputy prosecutor for organized crime, Milenko Mandić”, underlines Veran Matić.
Permanent persecutions
"What I want to say today is that this murder is the epilogue of the permanent persecution of Slavko Ćuruvija. Persecutions were intensified in 1998, as well as through court proceedings in which his property was confiscated. It must be said that he was permanently persecuted. The persecution ended on April 11, 1999 with his murder," said Branka Prpa, the only direct witness to the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija.
Before the court, describing the events of almost 25 years ago, she recalls the moments of the murder and the meeting with the killers as "metaphysical, death". She was pistol-whipped to the ground.
"That man stood over me for a while and thought about whether he should kill me too," she pointed out.
Branka Prpa stuck to her earlier claims that the killer she saw did not look like Miroslav Kurak, whom the indictment accuses of shooting Slavko. She again described the killer's face as "stark white" and "amorphous".
When asked if the same attacker hit her in the head with a gun and then shot Ćuruvija, Prpa replied: "No, but I didn't see him, one hit me in the head, and the other shot Slavko in the head while he was lying down."
Prosecutor Milenko Mandić claims that Branka Prpa's testimony about the killer's appearance cannot be trusted because her glasses fallen off and because she was distraught and under great stress.
The deep state does not stop working
From the very beginning, the trial was accompanied by obstructions, intimidation of witnesses, and attempts to suppress key evidence. At each exposure to the light, the tentacles of the deep state would strike back harder and more nervously.
That is why the hallmarks of this trial are the various spins and distortions of facts released to the public, relativization and attacks by the accused and their lawyers, but also direct targeting of those who fought for justice to reach the perpetrators.
This time, Radomir Marković, former head of the State Security Service (SDB), also addressed the court, and, among other things, lashed out at Veran Matić, the president of the Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists. He accused Matić of working for NATO and of wanting to "absolve the organizers of the Merciful Angel". Due to the experience of the bombing of Serbia, "working for NATO" is considered in those circles as treasonous action, while the name "Merciful Angel" was the ironic term that Milošević's propaganda invented to label the NATO bombing of Serbia.
The accused, Radomir Marković, said that Ćuruvija was followed because he met with foreign spies and that he was not a critic of the government and that there were journalists who were more dangerous to the regime.
"When Milošević can no longer be tried, then the State Security should be tried and the government should be tried through it," he said.
Lawyer Stevan Protić, who represents Miroslav Kurak, who fled, claims that "the witnesses were manipulated", and he accused the president of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists, Veran Matić, of manipulation, addressing him in disparaging terms.
The Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists in Serbia was established ten years ago and has been often criticized, with most of the attacks coming from representatives of the war policy of the 1990s and former members of the secret and public security services. All of them, opponents of dealing with the past.
"Especially many attacks came from the circle of the accused and their lawyers. One of whom repeated the lies and discrediting accusations that had also been a prelude to the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija. Attacks on me are very frequent, because there is always an intention to interpret the establishment of the Commission as some kind of illegal act. It bothers the accused and the defense that I am speaking publicly about this case and that I am trying to establish the truth completely and punish those responsible,“ Matić points out.
Solidarity
"It is very shocking that it took so long to have the truth about Slavko Ćuruvija's killers and who ordered the killing. We are in full solidarity with you, your unions and the Serbian journalists. We are in full solidarity with his family and ask you to convey this to them", said Dominique Pradalié, president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), referring to the fact that the family, journalists and the public in Serbia have been waiting for justice for 24 years.
Maja Sever, the president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), laid flowers on the memorial plaque at the place where Slavko Ćuruvija was killed on March 11, 1999, and said that she was in Belgrade to give support and sympathy to his family and colleagues.
"The least these people should get is peace. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The problem of impunity for crimes against journalists is shared by all of us in Europe. We share our condolences and support," Sever said.
“The trial for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija will definitely be a strong test for the judicial system and democracy in Serbia. Murder of a journalist is an extreme case and the punishment should be proportional, of course. We need to break the vicious circle of crimes and impunity,” stated the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro just before the opening of the process before the Court of Appeal.
"The legacy of the dismal 1990’s is on trial through the judicial proceedings on the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija. A credible conclusion, based on an open and transparent approach to evidence and testimonies, will strengthen the Serbian Justice system and the trust that citizens place in the system. A clear decision by the court will also be a strong statement against impunity and a bulwark against possible future crimes against journalists. No one should get away with murder", comments Ambassador Jan Braathu, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.
Justice to prevail
Ivana Stevanović, the executive director of the Slavko Ćuruvija foundation, expects to confirm the conviction and the maximum sentences for the perpetrators.
"Indeed, after so many years, it is necessary for the whole society and the justice system to end the case, to establish the judicial truth and for the defendants to serve their prison sentences. We now have 100% impunity for crimes against journalists and it is worrying for every journalist that the state is not there to protect their work and life, that the ball starts to unravel and that a message is sent to potential attackers and that this society will not tolerate it", she says.
The trial will continue on March 28 in the courthouse, which has special security measures, a courtroom designed for processing war crimes, dealing with the past. In that courtroom, they were tried for the murder of the one who fought against that past and created a better Serbia, for the murder of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. Today, 20 years since his murder, and almost a quarter of a century since the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, the last pages of the darkest period of Serbian society are being written in that courtroom. And a decision was made, on whose side justice will be.
This article, which follows 'The trial for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija: Wrestling with the deep state' and 'An update on the appeal process in Slavko Ćuruvija murder trial: Justice in limbo', has been written by the investigative journalist Jelena L. Petković. She has been conducting research for many years into the killing and disappearance of journalists in Kosovo. Her work included interviews with more than 200 interlocutors: relatives, colleagues, acquaintances and members of international missions. Her work has contributed to disclose new information on the disappearances and killings.