Continuation of the trial of the accused for the murder of Ćuruvija

The trial of four former members of the State Security, accused of murdering journalist Slavko Ćuruvija in 1999, will continue today in the Special Court in Belgrade with the hearing of witnesses.

On the dock are the then head of the DB Radomir Marković, the head of the Belgrade center of the DB Milan Radonjić, the chief intelligence inspector in the Second Directorate of the department Ratko Romić, while Milan Kurak is on the run and is being tried in absentia.

Slavko Ćuruvija was killed on Easter, April 11, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Serbia, in front of the building where he lived in Belgrade.

Radonjić and Romić are in custody, Marković is serving a 40-year sentence in Zabela, Pozarevac, and an international warrant has been issued for Kurak.

According to the indictment, Ćuruvija was killed by Miroslav Kurak, and his accomplice was Ratko Romić, who hit Ćuruvija's friend Branka Prpa in the head with the handle of a pistol.

As stated in the indictment, Ćuruvija was killed because of his "public speaking in the country and abroad and criticism of the holders of political power, the possibility of influencing public opinion and the actions of oppositional social forces, in order to preserve the existing government".

Ćuruvija was killed in the yard in front of the entrance to the building, where the premises of the marketing department of the Daily Telegraph were located.

The key witness in this process is the former commander of the Special Operations Unit (JSO) Milorad Ulemek Legija, after whose testimony an official investigation was launched against the accused.

Ulemek is also serving a single sentence of 40 years in prison in Pozarevac's Zabela for the murder of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, Ivan Stambolić, the crime on the Ibar highway and the misdeeds of the "Zemun clan".