ANEM ALARM: The case of journalist Vladimir Mitrić has entered its 21st year without complete justice.

There are also four final judgments against the former police officer, but for the past decade and a half, he has successfully avoided settling his obligations to the journalist.

Mitrić announced that yesterday the court executor finally, for the first time, recorded almost symbolically the items in the house where the former police officer of the Belgrade Police Administration lives, who was convicted for inflicting serious bodily injuries on him in 2005, brutally, in the entrance of the building where he lived. Mitrić stated that the debtor was again not at home, which has most often been the case until now, but there were family members and their lawyer, a former high-ranking official of the Belgrade Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia.

The fact that his lawyer is now a former police chief is no surprise to Mitrić, as he claims that during the time the trial was ongoing, the lawyer of his attacker became a judge of the Basic Court in Loznica in 2010. A series of situations throughout the proceedings, according to him, indicates the involvement of many from police circles.

“When I look back at everything now, including what I do not mention, it is clear that those who were the 'architects' of the attempts on my life at my doorstep were very, very influential and remained so in various ways. I publicly offered the attacker to reveal them and that I would forgive him everything, but he either did not want to or could not. Interestingly, the police chief in Šabac told me that there was significant obstruction from the Belgrade police to prevent the attacker from being arrested, as well as that the local police chief opposed the order for the police to provide me with protection. Considering all this, it is clear to me that I cannot live without protection, not out of fear, but to prevent a crime that would go unpunished, simply for writing about crime, just as the case of Milan Pantić's murder remains unsolved to this day, and I was attacked almost identically to him, except that I had more luck,” Mitrić pointed out.

Since the beginning of the proceedings, Mitrić has had to regularly pay court fees to prevent the enforcement from becoming obsolete, as well as advances for procedures, which have so far been unsuccessful one after the other. Regarding the costs of the trial and the pursuit of justice, Mitrić states that he has spent at least two million dinars so far, which means that the justice for which the perpetrator was convicted has cost him the equivalent of a two-year gross salary.

“The enforcement is still a long way off, and the majority of the obligations relate to my costs, from legal fees to those for experts, which has long exceeded my gross salary. I have previously requested several times that the background of the attack on me be investigated. Nothing has been done,” emphasized Mitrić.

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) once again calls on the judicial authorities, the Ministry of Justice, and other relevant institutions to enable the administration of justice so that victims can have effective compensation for court costs, adequate and swiftly realized compensation for damages, and to prevent secondary victimization in the process of achieving justice.

We also call on the Chamber of Public Executors to supervise the work of the public executor responsible for the case of journalist Vladimir Mitrić and to determine in accordance with the Rules on the Supervision of the Work of Public Executors whether there have been any violations of the Ethical Code of Public Executors and the Rules on the Standards of Professional Conduct of Public Executors.

The Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists continues to carefully monitor the development of this case.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project “Improving the System Mechanism for Prevention and Response in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Life of Female and Male Journalists in Serbia” is implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insider TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union.