ANEM REPORT: Main hearing regarding the attack on N1, the accused appeared in court with the image of convicted war criminal Mladić.

The N1 team, consisting of Maja Nikolić, an award-winning journalist and editor, and cameraman Ivan Pavlović, was attacked by a man who, along with a group of activists involved in the so-called Ćacilend, seized and destroyed their camera and tripod. The attack occurred in the presence of more than 10 police officers from at least three different units, who did not react to the assault, nor did they respond to journalist Maja Nikolić's calls for intervention. The investigation and other investigative actions only began an hour and a half after the attack, despite the insistence of journalists' associations, including ANEM and NUNS, for immediate action. 

Thanks to the database of the investigative portal KRIK titled “Ćaci(ji) čuvari partije,” the attacker on the N1 team was quickly identified as Vladan Sretenović. He had previously been convicted of murder, with his sentence reduced from 35 years in prison to 15 years. After serving his sentence for murder, Sretenović was convicted of violent behavior and assault in Arilje, for which he received a year and a half in prison. He was on the run until he was arrested in Croatia and extradited to Serbia. Following that, the attack on the N1 news team occurred. A month and a half passed from the attack until his arrest. KRIK’s database lists that “despite physically assaulting the N1 team and destroying their camera, Sretenović is charged with the crime of preventing the printing and distribution of printed materials and broadcasting programs. Sretenović, as he himself admitted on Happy Television, served time for a murder he committed in 1997.” 

The First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against Vladan Sretenović, who has also been placed under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. The main hearing in the court case regarding the attack on the N1 team was held today due to a change of judge in the meantime. 

Defendant Vladan Sretenović appeared in court accompanied by two other individuals, all dressed in uniforms wearing t-shirts depicting convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić and bearing the message “From your struggle our freedom was born.” The defendant also wore a cap that is a typical symbol of the convicted Mladić. A quote on the back of Sretenović's t-shirt allegedly belongs to Patriarch Pavle and reads, “A man is stronger dead than an inhuman alive.”

New judge Ružica Savić did not respond to this demonstration of denial of war crimes. The accused Sretenović had previously admitted guilt, maintaining that he had been in the area near the City Assembly of Belgrade by coincidence about ten days before the incident, as his aunt had sent him there to check on his brother and sister. He claimed he accidentally moved a fence when he was hit by a stone thrown by someone among the gathered crowd at that location. In his statement, he also argued that he believed he was targeted because he had been filmed there three days earlier by a camera, presumably from Insider Television, and that this made him “targeted” as a security guard in Ćacilend. While he was helping to move crates of apples between two tents, he stated, he noticed the camera and the cameraman, as well as a girl he asked why they were filming. The accused Sretenović also mentioned that at that moment an older woman threw plastic at him, and while the cameraman was raising the camera, likely to record the situation, Sretenović thought he would be hit with the camera. He claimed in his statement that he struggled with the cameraman, which caused the camera to fall to the ground due to its weight, and he admitted to hitting it a few times afterward. 

Until the end of the court proceedings, the accused Sretenović will not answer questions from the court, the prosecution, or the representatives of the injured parties, but his evident intention is to send messages glorifying the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. Sretenović's defense attorney insisted that the legal representative of N1 be heard, as it is no longer the former director Igor Božić. 

Regarding all requests, the new judge will make decisions in the upcoming period, while today she decided to hear journalist Maja Nikolić specifically on the day when the N1 team was attacked by Vladan Sretenović on November 20. A similar situation occurred in the case against the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation when the judge in the case against the accused who were subsequently acquitted, Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić, and Miroslav Kurak, scheduled a hearing on the very day of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija's murder. 

Association of Independent Electronic Media 

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