Father of 8-year-old Marija, murdered over 10 years ago: "Register of pedophiles must be public"

Photo: Private archive

Today, she would be an adult citizen of Serbia, she would be deciding, maybe about other people's lives. She would have graduated from high school, and perhaps be getting ready to go to university. Unfortunately, she is not among us. For more than a decade. Too soon, her life was cut short in the most monstrous way by a villain, a monster, who did not even live to see his punishment in prison... Afterwards, they say, even God chooses... No truth anywhere...

Recommended

Marija Jovanovic.

She was only eight years old when she was raped and strangled by her neighbor Mladen Ogulinac, in Stari Ledinci, on June 26, 2010.

She had not seen anything of life, except children's play. She was had yet to get to know life. Serbia got a law because of her sacrifice - Marija's Law, aimed against pedophiles.

There are still many of them, as we can see. After her, Tijana (Juric) was murdered, and little Monika almost saw the same fate... Still, however, each day we hear that a child has been raped. It has come down to every parent being afraid to let their child out in the street alone, to fear whether they will return from school, get to school...

For several years now, Marija's family has been silent. Father Slobodan no longer talks about it publicly. Talking cannot bring Marija back to him. Whether he cries or laughs, only he knows...

That's how it was same during this conversation for Telegraf.rs.

"It's been ten and a half years. It will be 11 in June. This last anniversary was not inconspicuous. I kept silent. I don't want to talk about it too much. I deal with some other things. Building, ceramics, tiles, I make a living from it. After the law was adopted in 2013, a while later, I stepped back," says Marija's father Slobodan Jovanovic in an interview for Telegraf.rs.

Just as I thought it might be easier for him that way, he said:

"It's not about making it easier for me. I don't want to point a finger at anyone. I am neither an expert nor am I that kind of authority. Who am I to judge anyone and point the finger? What I would like the most is not to have this conversation, at least not in these circumstances and on this topic."

He pays as much attention to the news about pedophilia as others people, because he cannot avoid it. He doesn't know if there is more of it than before, but he is sure that there is a flood of such news in the media. He is also sure that he would never have fought against pedophilia, if his child had not been killed.

And, he is sure, and he points that out, that the register of pedophiles, within the framework of Marija's Law, must be made public.

"A new law has been passed. I imagined it to be a preventive barrier to all possible pedophiles and rapists not to commit the crime. What is an important item of that Law is the register. The only thing I insist on is for it to be public. The register exists, but it is necessary to have some legal regulations and to say that all pedophiles can be publicly denounced," Jovanovic, the initiator of Marija's Law, says for our portal:

Marija Jovanovic; Photo: Private archive

"We who served in the army know that fear guards the border. Well, if fear guards the border from external enemy, then shame and disgrace should guard us from ourselves. That is that public register of pedophiles. Anyone who possibly thinks he will do something like that, will know that he will be publicly denounced and that all his people will be ashamed of him, and that all his people will be publicly denounced. The emphasis is not on the family of the possible perpetrator, but on those who have not committed the crime but have such thoughts."

Jovanovic believes that a public register would not be a sufficient barrier, but that it would be an exceptional obstacle, which would influence a drop in the number of perpetrators of such crimes.

"That shame and disgrace... We have had a register of debtors in Serbia since 2015. With one click, you can find out who is indebted and how much, but there is no public register of pedophiles. A public register of pedophiles has not been created and the explanation is that this would violate human rights. It turns out that the poor people who are in debt can be pilloried, but maniacs cannot," said Jovanovic and added that the public register of pedophiles should be the same as the register of debtors - containing data from the ID card, residence and stating what crime they committed.

Little Marija disappeared from her house where she was with her younger brother. The neighbor, Ogulinac, used the fact that he knew the girl, since his sister was babysitting Marija and her brother, and lured her to his house in Vuka Karadzica Street.

The body of little Marija was found by her father Slobodan buried in the monster's yard.

Late in the evening, the Gendarmerie arrested Ogulin. Two months later, exactly on the day of Marija's birthday, he was found dead in a prison cell in the District Prison in Belgrade. He died of a heart attack and did not face trial, let alone punishment.

In order for no child to experience Marija's fate, Slobodan launched an initiative, thanks to which Marija's Law was adopted in 2013. This law has eliminated any possibility of a statute of limitations being applied to the criminal offense of pedophilia and rape of minors, and measures against pedophiles and rapists have been made stricter. A register of pedophiles with DNA data has also been formed.

(Telegraf.rs)