11. 04. 2007

ĆURUVIJA MURDER EIGHTS ANNIVERSARY

BELGRADE, April 11, 2007 (B92) - Today marks the eighth anniversary since the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, a prominent Serbian anti-regime journalist.

Ćuruvija was shot in the head on April 11, 1999, in front of his apartment in downtown Belgrade, during an ongoing NATO campaign against the country. Five days before he was murdered, the regime daily Politika Ekspres published an article denouncing Ćuruvija as a traitor who supported the bombing.

To date, no one has been charged with his murder.

At the end of last year, the Special Prosecution for Organized Crime took over the case which in almost eight years provided no breakthroughs.

Ćuruvija was under state security (DB) surveillance immediately prior to his death. The investigation, marked as official secret, has so far heard statements from all DB Department IX members tasked with following Ćuruvija.

The reconstruction of the crime is expected to take place after the prosecution finishes examining potential witnesses.

Ćuruvija’s family lawyer Rajko Danilović says it will take an insider, or a collaborating witness, to break the conspiracy of silence surrounding the case.
 
“More or less, everything is known. Person or persons who ordered the crime, people who provided logistic support within the DB, people who ordered the surveillance have all been identified. Serious indications point to individuals that could be indicted, however there is no indictment. We don’t have an insider, and that is the only way to get to the truth,” Danilović says.

Police and judicial officials have several times promised that the case would be solved, and even indicated they knew who ordered the killing and who fired the weapon that killed the anti-Milošević regime journalist.

“This government exhibits no political will to solve the case. The court, the prosecution, all of us tied to this case do have the will to solve it, but it is lacking in political circles,” Danilović concluded.