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11. 04. 2014

VERAN MATIĆ: WE BELIEVE INDICTMENT WILL COME BEFORE DEADLINE

11.4.2014 (Politika; By Veran Matić) - Last year, on the occasion of marking the day of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, hopes were expressed that in the following year there would be some progress in identifying the murderers and those who ordered the murder, said Veran Matić, president of the Commission to Investigate Murders of Journalists, and added: "This year we can say that the investigation has been intensified to the level that can be defined as bringing closer to the end the collecting of evidence and statements necessary for pressing charges. Legal deadline is six months, but we believe that the charges will be pressed before it."

Working on this case, the responsible state authorities have collected much information, findings and evidence and they have always been close to solving the case. The Commission unified forces and created the atmosphere in which the proactive approach supplied the little that has been lacking for solving the case and thus we now have for the first time suspects for this crime who are in custody. In this way, a message was sent to all the criminals that there is no protection from criminal prosecution, and that for gravest crimes there is no forgetting that the passage of time brings.

An international warrant was issued for an accused, while police authorities and judiciary attempt to identify the country in which he is so as to do everything needed to bring him to justice. In this case, the Commission attempts to raise the awareness of institutions and international public that it is a priority task for all of them because the lack of sanctions for murderers of journalists is a global problem, and the UN launched a global initiative two years ago against lack of punishment of crimes against journalists.

The case of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija is treated as symbolic in order to describe the times of terror against the media and journalists in the 90s of the last century. At the same time, he became a symbol that denotes the absence or lack of action towards solving the case. And we strive today that investigations of the Special Prosecutor's Office and the work of the Commission become a symbol showing that even after 15 years it is possible to process the suspect perpetrators and those who ordered the murder in order to establish in a fair trial who killed Slavko Ćuruvija, who ordered the killing, and with what motive. The Commission to Investigate Murders of Journalists will deal with who and in what way has obstructed the work of investigative authorities all these years, who has not been doing what they should have been doing and why.

The Commission continues to work on this case, while the main bulk of work is in the hands of the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime which is bringing to the end the interrogation of possible perpetrators and witnesses, collecting all the evidence.