BELGRADE, 12.07.2018. – Serbian police arrested a man suspected of attacking Stefan Cvetkovic, a Serbian journalist who sparked headlines in June when he went missing for several days and was then charged with faking his own abduction.
Police arrested a 39-year-old man on Monday evening on suspicion of attacking journalist Stefan Cvetkovic in a café in the journalist’s hometown Bela Crkva, on Serbia’s border with Romania.
In a statement, police said the man would remain in custody for 48 hours.
On Monday evening, Cvetkovic posted a photo of himself on Facebook with a wound on his head and wearing a bloodied T-shirt, stating that he sought medical help after he was attacked.
He said he was hit by a local man who already threatened him. Cvetkovic told Danasnewspaper that he fled to Romania after the attack.
Cvetkovic became the subject of intense media attention when he vanished in mid-June after claiming earlier this year to have uncovered fresh details about the unsolved murder of the Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic.
Cvetkovic’s car was found with open doors and its lights turned on, with a wristwatch lying nearby.
He was found a day later unharmed, and the authorities later filed criminal charges against him, alleging that he falsely reported his own abduction.
Cvetkovic does not work in conventional media, and publishes his reports on his private blog.
