Historian Branka Prpa said in the Special Court in Belgrade that Miroslav Kurak does not look like the person who shot Slavko Ćuruvija.
While testifying in the Special Court in Belgrade at the trial of the accused for the murder of Ćuruvija, answering the questions of Kurak's defense attorney Stevan Protić, she clarified that she saw Kurak in a picture published in the media, which was shown to her by a journalist.
"Then I commented that that face doesn't look like a killer to me," she said.
Prpa, who was with Ćuruvija when he was killed in the passage of the building in Svetogorska, where they lived, then indicated that she watched the killer from the ground, he was standing above her.
"His face was exposed, he only had a black woolen cap and jacket on his head. The face is amorphous, without any physical characteristics. He had a wide face and large black eyes and was extremely pale," said Prpa, who suffered injuries during the attack. a blow to the head.
Prpa described that the killer was not very tall, according to her estimate about 175 centimeters, stocky, built and with a short neck.
According to her, on April 11, the day of the murder, Ćuruvija and she went for a walk around 14 p.m. and upon their return, in the hallway of the house in Svetogorska Street, where they lived, Slavko "started to fall as if he had tripped."
"Slavko started to fall and he was holding my hand. I turned to see what was happening and then I got hit in the head and fell. Slavko fell before me and I followed him. While I was lying down, I saw a man who approached with a gun towards us, who were lying on the ground. He approached Slavko and shot him in the head," said Prpa.
Then the man with the gun came up to her.
"I was silent and watched and he was silent and turned around and calmly and slowly walked away from the scene of the crime," said Prpa.
Answering the prosecutor's question whether there were two people at the scene of the murder, although she saw only one man, Prpa stated that the person who shot could not have hit her at the same time.
"That's why I had the feeling that someone else hit me. Mostly because we fell almost at the same time," she said.
Prpa also pointed out that the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija was the result of repression that began in October 1998, when the new Law on Information was passed at that time.
"Slavko Ćuruvija was persecuted in a way that was recorded for the first time in political practice when it comes to independent journalism. The basis for this was the Law on Information," said Prpa, testifying at the trial of DB members accused of murdering Ćuruvija.
According to her, based on that law, it was possible not only to punish journalists, editors-in-chief and media directors, but collective guilt was introduced.
The confiscation of not only editorial but also private property was also introduced, Prpa stated, claiming that court decisions on closing newspapers were made within 24 hours, which is what happened to Slavko, first with the newspaper "Evropljanin" and with others.
Prpa also stated that she and Ćuruvija wanted to leave Serbia and that he tried to find an apartment in Montenegro, but later gave up.
He did not want to leave Serbia, saying "what can I do - they can only shoot me...", his unmarried widow stated.
She also added that Ćuruvija had no political ambitions, although he joked that he was going to found his own party because none of them were good.
Previously, the daughter of the murdered journalist Jelena Ćuruvi Đurica testified, who pointed out the property-legal claim against the accused, but did not specify the amount.
Answering questions from the defense, she stated that her father was left with only debts and empty accounts and that she did not know that he had received any "big money".
"We inherited what we inherited, and there was no money. Only debts, empty accounts and safes," said Jelena Ćuruvija.
The defense of the accused also tried to raise the issue of Ćuruvija's security, i.e. his bodyguards, but Jelena had no further information about them, nor how and through whom her father hired them.
Prpa, on the other hand, stated that security guards also guarded the newsroom, but also them when necessary, stating that Ćuruvija led them "more theatrically when they went somewhere".
According to her testimony, Ćuruvija rented an apartment on the ground floor of their house, a house where "people who warned him - who enters and leaves there" lived.
"Luka Pejović looked the most like a murderer to me"
Branka Prpa said that Luka Pejović most resembled the killer of Ćuruvija.
Pejović was a member of the reserve unit of the Special Operations Unit (JSO) and was killed on December 5, 2000, in "waiting" on Topčiderski brdo.
Prpa, answering questions from the defense, said that from April 12, 1999, the day after the murder, until November 2000, she was never called to the police and it was clear to her that no investigation was being conducted until the formation of the Government of Zoran Đinđić .
In November, she first saw pictures of Luka Pejović who, as she said, most resembled the person who shot Slavko Ćuruvija, but even then she could not say that with 100 percent certainty.
"I think they told me then that Pejović was killed and that he had that characteristic pallor on his face that I insisted on", stated Prpa and added that the police also told her that Pejović complained to his friends that he was going to be killed because "he killed a journalist ".
During the Kostunica government, a new investigation began with new questions. As she said, the inspectors asked her "if her eyes were blue, and in the dark she could see black, if there were contact lenses..."
Previously, when asked by the lawyer where she went after the liquidation of Ćuruvija, Prpa stated that she rushed to the building and called Gordana Suša to inform the journalists and Danica Drašković to call the emergency services and to inform her that Slavko had been shot.
She expected, as she explained, that Danica Drašković could intervene and that the ambulance would arrive quickly, however, the ambulance arrived an hour later, she testified.
She learned that Ćuruvija was dead from the police who came to investigate.
When asked about the note, which she confirmed that she found stuck on the memorial plaque to Slavka Ćuruvija at the place where he was killed, she said that it had two names written on it with the explanation that they were members of KOS who killed Ćuruvija.
"I took the note to Minister Dušan Mihajlović. During the investigation during Mihajlović's ministry, the police tried to obtain data on whether KOS participated, but it did not bear fruit," said Prpa.
She believes that it is not true that KOS did not follow him.
"In their job description, it was to follow his international activity and meeting with foreigners...", she stated.
Asked why little attention is paid to her statements, that is, why the investigation is going in a different direction and not following what she claims, Prpa stated that it is a question of the ethics of a society and a system.
"This state did not perform its constitutional function, it did not protect its citizens, it killed them. It is a question of ethical foundations and it is much bigger than my and Slavko's fate," Prpa said in response to a question from the defendant's defense attorney, Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović.
When asked by Nikodinović from Dobričan why attention is being paid to "an associate witness, who has nothing left to lose (Milorad Ulemek Legija)", Prpa stated that she does not know what kind of "elite alliance is involved, that is a question for future historians".
She confirmed that she received letters with death threats during the investigation before the Special Court in January 2007.
"It intensified after my statement in court... the letter said that this time they would not just hit me in the head..." Prpa said.
She handed over the letters to the police and informed President Boris Tadić, special prosecutor and police director Milorad Veljović, but she has no information about what happened next.
Answering the questions of the defense counsel of the accused Radomir Marković, lawyer Dušan Mašić, the Prpa confirmed that Ćuruvija had debts to banks due to permanent loans for newspapers and printers, as well as that he received donations.
"He was always trying to overcome a situation. His newspaper was banned, he was destroyed by constant looting and destruction of property, over 300 people worked in his editorial office on the entire floor in Borba," she said.
According to her, after the trip to Washington, the US Congress decided to help him restore the newspaper.
"At the end of March, we received an e-mail from Washington and he was granted 250.000 dollars to rebuild the entire publishing business. But the money did not arrive, because he was killed," testified Prpa.
When asked by the lawyer if he received $400.000 before the murder, she said that there was no money, but that Slavko liked to joke about it and mislead journalists.
Slavko Ćuruvija (1949), was a journalist and publisher, founder of the newspapers "Nedjeljni telegraf", "Dnevni telegraf" and "Europljanin".
He was killed on Easter, April 11, 1999.
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