What happened today?! The murderers of Slavko Curuvija didn't get the maximum sentences, and one key question remains unanswered
The sentenced received a total of 100 years of prison sentences
Radomir Markovic and Milan Radonjic were sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering journalist Slavko Curuvija in 1999, while Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurak received 20 years in prison. They were not sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in prison, as requested by the prosecution.
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Immediately after the verdict, the comments appeared in the public: How is it possible that there is any mitigating circumstance for the reduction of the sentence for the horrible murder?
The second question that arises is who exactly ordered this crime, considering that only the organizers and perpetrators received sentences.
Former State Security head Radomir Markovic was sentenced for incitement to commit suicide. The former head of Belgrade's State Security center, Milan Radonjic, and former members of the SS, Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurak, were sentenced for complicity in a murder.
Kurak and Romic were marked as direct perpetrators, they approached Curuvija from the back in front of the building where he lived. Kurac shot, claims the persecution, with an automatic gun from one and a half meters away and then he approaches and shoots Curuvija in the head.
During the trial for the murder of Curuvija, numerous members of the State Security were questioned as witnesses who participated in the secret monitoring that day, in order to confirm the claims of the Prosecution that Radonjic hired them against the rules, so he could have the data about their movement.
They, according to the prosecution, didn't know that the intention of Radonjic was to deliver the data to the perpetrators.
The deputy prosecutor for organized crime, Milenko Mandic, who represents the prosecution, proposed maximum 40-year sentences, stating that Curuvija died in the fight for the truth and for the better future.
The prosecution stated that Curuvija was murdered on April 11th, 1999, for Easter, from some low incentives, under the order of an unknown person from the highest structures of government. The motive is the desire to limit the freedom of media and to preserve the power of those who were criticized by Curuvija publicly.
The defense, on the other hand, described this as a "fruit of imagination", and they claimed there are no proofs for the participation of the accused in this liquidation.
The public monitored the trial considering that the first instance verdict was for the murder of one reported, while the other murders, including Dada Vujasinovic and Milan Pantic, still remain undiscovered.
(Telegraf.co.uk / Beta)