Former Grocka mayor sentenced to 4 years for inciting setting fire to a journalist's house

Photo: Tanjug/Tanja Valic

Dragoljub Simonovic, former president of the municipality of Grocka, was today sentenced to four years and three months in prison by the Second Basic Court in Belgrade, Novosti writes.

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He was convicted for inciting setting fire to the house of Milan Jovanovic, a Zig Info journalist, in December 2018.

Jovanovic has always claimed that he was attacked only because of his writings about affairs linked to the president of the municipality.

Namely, in the night between December 11 and 12, 2018, a car belonging to Jovanovic's wife was set on fire, which then spread to the garage and a part of the house. The fire caused material damage, but no one was injured.

Simonovic is charged with inciting other defendants to set fire to Jovanovic's property as a sign of warning.

Aleksandar Marinkovic is charged as the direct perpetrator of the crime, but he has been on the run since last year and an international warrant has been issued for his arrest, while the court case against him has been separated.

At the beginning of the investigation, Igor Novakovic and Vladimir Mihailovic admitted to setting the house on fire on Simonovic's orders, but they denied this during the trial.

As he presented his defense earlier, Simonovic completely denied committing the crime and described his stance toward Jovanovic's journalism and the website he works for.

In this case, at the very beginning of the investigation, singer Bojana Cvetkovic Sijacki admitted her guilt and reached a plea bargain with the prosecution, based on which she was sentenced to six months of house arrest and a fine of 50,000 dinars.

She admitted that she drove Marinkovic to Jovanovic's house, where the crime was committed.

(Telegraf.rs)