The trial against the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation has been postponed again.
The trial of the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation concerning the lawsuits filed by former officials and members of the State Security Sector – Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić, and Miroslav Kurak – has once again been postponed. This time it was due to the health condition of Judge Ljiljana Ilić.
Today, a trial was supposed to take place at the Second Basic Court regarding the lawsuit filed by the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation (SĆF) against Milana Radonjića, Ratka Romića, and Miroslava Kuraka, who had previously been convicted twice for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija and were later definitively acquitted.
The hearing did not occur due to health issues of the judge Ljiljana Ilić, and the next one is scheduled for September 10.
This was meant to be a continuation of the consolidated trial regarding the lawsuits filed by Radonjić, Romić, and Kurak, former officials and members of the State Security Service, against the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation due to a statement titled “The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation Shocked by the Ruling of the Appellate Court: A Country That Does Not Punish Killers Has No Future.”
The three of them are seeking compensation of 500,000 dinars each for “inflicted mental pain, damage to reputation, honor, and human rights.”
After the acquittal of those accused of murdering Slavko Ćuruvija, the three of them filed at least 22 lawsuits against media, individuals, and organizations on the same grounds.
The hearing has now been postponed twice. The last hearing was scheduled for April 11, on the day marking the 26th anniversary of Slavko Ćuruvija’s murder. It was postponed again due to the judge's illness.
The lawyer for the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, Kruna Savović, previously requested that these three consolidated lawsuits be dismissed as they are considered impermissible, malicious SLAPP lawsuits. The court was supposed to announce its decision on her request today.
Savović previously stated that this is an attempt to restrict the free expression of opinions on matters of general interest, which are of significant importance to the public, as it concerns the murder of a well-known journalist and critic of Slobodan Milošević's regime.
Meanwhile, at the end of May, the judge of the Second Basic Court, Vera Sredojević, dismissed as unfounded a lawsuit from the former head of the Belgrade center of the State Security Service, Milan Radonjić, against lawyer Aleksandar Olenik, who was sued for his reaction to the acquittal ruling in the case of Ćuruvija's murder.
In February 2024, Olenik stated on the X platform that, following the Appellate Court's ruling which definitively acquitted those twice convicted for Ćuruvija's murder, he identified the judges who, as he put it, “freed Ćuruvija's killers” and connected their actions to the Security and Information Agency.
In the reasoning for the ruling, which dismissed the lawsuit as unfounded, the judge noted that information concerning the objectivity and integrity of judges, especially in significant judicial processes, is considered a matter of public interest, and that Radonjić did not prove that he suffered damage to his reputation and honor due to Olenik's publication.
Source: Cenzolovka
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