09. 05. 2011

B92 cameraman assailant gets house arrest

Belgrade, May 9, 2011. (B92) - A man accused of attacking a B92 cameraman on assignment has been found guilty and sentenced to ten months under house arrest.

The defendant, Milan Savatijević, was the first accused in the case tried before Belgrade's First Court.

Nikola Lazić and Stefan Milićević, who were also indicted, were given six and four months suspended sentence respectively.

The three will also pay court costs that amount to RSD 55,000.

Cameraman Boško Branković was attacked on July 24, 2008, while covering a protest rally organized in the wake of the arrest of Radovan Karadžić.

His attackers faced jail-time of up to five years if found guilty of participating in a group committing a crime.

All three denied during the trial that they had inflicted serious bodily harm to Branković.

Branković suffered a broken leg and torn ligaments in one knee. He was attacked as he was filming another attack - on the FoNet news agency photo journalist, whose camera was broken. The crowd chanted "beat the journalist", while the incident was taking place.