May 31, 2022
The start of the retrial in the case of the firebombing of the house of journalist Milan Jovanović has once again been postponed due to the failure of defence attorney Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović to appear. This marks the third time that the start of this trial has had to be postponed due to either lawyers or defendants not attending.
The judge warned the defendants that they would have to find a replacement in the case that their representative isn’t in a position to attend the hearing, and that the court may freely appoint a defence counsel for them.
The next hearings have been scheduled for 22nd and 30th June.
The individuals accused of the December 2018 firebombing the house of this local Žig info portal journalist are Dragoljub Simonović, an official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and a former president of the Belgrade municipality of Grocka, Vladimir Mihailović and Aleksandar Marinković.
They were initially sentenced to a total of 12 and a half years in prison, but that first instance verdict was overturned in November 2021 by the Court of Appeal, which ordered that they be tried again in full. The new trial was supposed to start this February, but still hasn’t actually commenced, despite hearings having been scheduled.
