PODGORICA, 28.05.2018. – Physical attack and severe beatings of journalists Mladen Stojovic, from Bar, on 23rd May 2008 are no longer formally under the care of the Prosecutor’s and the Police offices because the Basic Prosecutor from Bar, Milenko Magdelinić, declared the case being obsolete and closed the case.
“On May 24th 2018. a decision was made to reject the criminal charges against the NN perpetrator as the absolute obsolete prosecution took place … “, said Magdelinic in his response to “Vijesti”.
“The beatings didn’t hurt me, everything that was going on later hurted me more”, said Mladen Stojovic to “Vijesti”.
He ironically said that he “rejoice that his case become obsolete”, because he decided to keep silent all the previous years after what had happened to him and the lack of will to really investigate this case.
“I suffered various pressures all this time, in different areas, because I was a victim. I had to keep silent and make sure I don’t play with it. It was my personal estimation to keep quiet and wait for everything to go”, Stojovic said.
In the late evening, 10 years ago, he was beaten in his parental home in Bar. While sitting in front of a computer, the attackers entered the apartment and hit him in the head. Court expert Dragana Cukic in her report to the High Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica on June 30th 2012., according to the Report of the Commission for Investigating Attacks on Journalists, stated that Mladen Stojovic was dealing with a serious bodily injury (a fracture of a pinched leg of the lower jaw, a fracture of the upper jaw tube, concussion).”
“Dr. Cukic concluded that “injuries in the head area were caused by repeated action of a blunt mechanical tool, such as fist, “box”, foot and other blunt means”. She excluded the “multiple-fall mechanism” as a possible cause of injury in the head area”, the document says.
Stojović said “to the sources who placed the information that he was ill with epilepsy” that he wasn’t ill with epilepsy before or later the attack.
Until the statute of limitations came into power, the inquest of the attack on him didn’t move from the beginning and was led against the NN persons.
“After the attack, Stojovic told the policemen “that the only motive for the attack on him could be his participation in the “Insider” show that was broadcast on B92 television in which he participated and talked about suspicious affairs in the football of Serbia and Montenegro, and then he, among others, spoked about Branislav Brano Mićunović and Radojica Božović”, said the Commission in its report from January this year.
Mićunović and Bozović were heard ten years later, two months before the statute of limitations was declared. As the chief Prosecutor from Bar said to “Vijesti”, Mićunović gave statement to the Police on March 15th and Božović on April 2nd this year. They, as reported by BST, Milenko Magdelinić, said that they had nothing to do with the attack and that they didn’t know the journalist.
The investigation of the attack was first managed by Zoran Bazovic, Basic Prosecutor at Bar, who is now the President of the Basic Court in Podgorica. He was succeeded by Milenko Magdelinić.
Four years before the attack on Mladen Stojovic, on May 27, 2004. the editor-in-chief of the daily “Dan”, Dusko Jovanovic, was killed, and for that only Damir Mandic was convicted, and the perpetrators and masterminds haven’t been found so far.
Following the murder of Jovanovic in 2007, a journalist Tufik Softic was beaten in front of his house in Berane, and this case was followed by a series of attacks on journalists, including the wounding of Olivera Lakic on May 9th this year.
I agreed to keep quiet, I couldn’t leave Montenegro
“Among countless unpleasant cases after this attack, there was also the arrival of three members of the Police Intervention Unit at my apartment. It was five years ago, when the statute of limitation was declared for the first time. They appeared at my door, 15 minutes before I was supposed to be in the Police station where I was called, with the threat that I would be arrested if I don’t answer the call. However, I was waiting to the inspector to whom I made the statement for half an hour, so I got the impression that they didn’t expected me. And that impression I had during the all 10 years – that they expect me to be quiet. And I agreed to their rules, because I didn’t want to leave Montenegro for private reasons”, said Mladen Stojovic.