Former head of the State Security Service (RBD) Belgrade center chief Milan Radonjic, one of the four persons charged with the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija and acquitted in February by the Court of Appeals, sued the Slavko Curuvija Foundation over a press release it issued expressing disagreement with the judgment.
Radonjic is seeking compensation of 500,000 dinars from the Foundation for injury to reputation and honor.
Twenty-five years after the Curuvija murder, after nine years of court proceedings, two first-instance judgments finding them guilty and the final acquittal of the defendants due to lack of evidence, the crime against the journalist and the owner of Dnevni Telegraf and Evropljanin remains unpunished and unresolved, said the Foundation.
We are now witnessing an attempt to eradicate all memory of Curuvija and silence the voices that will not consent to impunity and allow for things to be forgotten, it stressed.
This lawsuit is a result of the atmosphere in society created by the government. The captured state is not resolving and punishing the crimes done on its behalf. Violence and crime are glorified and encouraged, and villains are celebrated as heroes. Any criticism against current and former sins of the authorities is brutally suppressed, said the Foundation.
The persecution of Slavko Curuvija continues, 25 years after his murder, it added.
The Slavko Curuvija Foundation will continue to cherish the memory of the journalist it was named after but it will also continue to insist that all attacks against journalists are. Firstly, with an acquittal, and now with intimidation through lawsuits, such attacks are encouraged. We do not accept this, said the Foundation.
Source: N1