March 1, 2017
A three-day hearing in the trial for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija was supposed to be held last week, but only two witnesses testified, of the five called, while the last day of the hearing was cancelled due to technical problems.
Testimonies were given by two police officers who worked on the investigation of the murder, one of whom confirmed previous claims from the testimonies of many other police witnesses that the original 2001 investigation was left floundering because investigators were not permitted to question the State Security workers who were following Ćuruvija on the day of the murder, until ten minutes before the crime, when monitoring was suspended.
Also scheduled to testify was Dušan Mihajlović, interior minister from 2001 to 2004, but the court failed to locate him at any of the addresses where he is registered.
His testimony is expected in April, when the trial will resume.
Ćuruvija, editor of daily newspaper Dnevni Telegraf and news magazine Evropljanin, was murdered on 11th April 1999.
The trial only began in 2014, after four members of the State Security Department, including Radomir Marković – a former head of the department and a close associate of former President Slobodan Milošević – were formally accused of the murder.
Photo: Jana Nikolic / Slavko Curuvija Foundation
