#IFJBlog- Serbia: Darkness and despair, return of the deep state

Twice in previous court proceedings, former members of the State Security Service Radomir Marković, Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak were sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison. Now, after the decision of the Court of Appeal, they are exonerated and free.

Despite all the pressure and demands by domestic and international journalistic organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) (which also had its own observer at the trial before the Court of Appeal), 25 years on, no one, not even after the fourth century, will be held accountable for the most infamous murder of a journalist in Serbia.

What to expect? Many journalists in Serbia ask, when the state kills you, investigates and judges you. Anyone who doesn’t know the post-communist systems of the deep state should know that the core of that evil structure are not just people with badges and bloody guns. The general impression is that those tentacles reach every sphere of life – they have „their people“ in the police and the judiciary, infiltrated into every pore of society.

Law and justice in the mud – once again they showed who is the real boss of Serbia.

Shock and fear 

„I am shocked by this scandalous decision. It sends a clear, frightening message to all journalists and all people who fight for freedom of speech. This verdict proves that the dark forces of the 1990s still rule this country. This is the land of darkness. I’m speechless,” said Jelena Ćuruvija Đurica, the daughter of the murdered journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija, for Cenzolovka, a Serbian website on freedom of media.

The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation announced that this verdict was deeply disturbing for the family, friends, colleagues and admirers of the murdered journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija because he publicly criticized the criminal regime of Slobodan Milošević.

„This verdict is a clear sign that the state is not able to deal with the darkest parts of its own services from the nineties and that they still have a huge influence on both the judiciary and the political processes in Serbia,“ announced the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation.

The members of the Court of Appeal panel who issued the verdict that will forever remain on the conscience of the judiciary and Serbian society are Nada Hadži Perić, Vesna Petrović, Dragan Ćesarević, Marko Jocić and Dušanka Đorđević.

„The five-member panel of the Court of Appeal showed that the protection of state representatives steeped in crimes and the protection of the secret service, which has shown so many times that human life means nothing to it, are more important to them than evidence and the law. Their decision is just the latest of a disgraceful process that lasted almost nine years and was full of strange decisions of court panels, first-instance judgments written in such a way that they must be overturned, intimidation of key witnesses and their families, refusal to call as witnesses those who knew the most about this case“, emphasized the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation.

The foundation reminded that the murderers of the journalist – who was spied on and stalked by the Secret Service prior to his killing, whose murder was preordained on state television, who was attacked by the highest state officials, about whom monstrous lies were spread in the state media – were acquitted.

“The state destroyed his property and persecuted his associates”, underlines Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation,  concluding that the judgment of the Court of Appeal completely legitimizes this criminal system and returns it to the big stage of the 1990s.

More information on the trial can be found in The trial for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija: Wrestling with the deep state, An update on the appeal process in Slavko Ćuruvija murder trial: Justice in limbo, The trial for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija: Why justice must prevail and Final words at the Slavko Ćuruvija murder trial: Taming our demons.

“It is a scandal that the Court of Appeal not only delivers an acquittal, but goes one step further and does what no one has asked them to do to justify the work of the Secret Service and declares the surveillance of Ćuruvija legal. In the statement, they say that the surveillance of Ćuruvija was legal and usual practice, despite the many statements of witnesses from the Service itself who claimed that the surveillance was illegal, atypical, that they had never before or since tracked someone in such a way, reporting from minute to minute about every change“, emphasized the lawyer of the Ćuruvija family, Slobodan Ružić.

A country that does not punish murderers has no future

This verdict is a triumph of the criminalized parts of the secret service, responsible for numerous crimes. It illustrates that murders of journalists will never be solved and that those who killed will continue to influence the institutions of the Serbian state.

Reputable journalists and respectable journalists’ associations in Serbia agree with the assessment of the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation that the rule of law in Serbia has been called into question by this decision, that democratic processes have been stopped, and freedom of speech has practically been suspended.

The country joins the darkest countries where it is possible to kill with impunity for publicly expressed criticism.

It is a very sad day when it comes to the fight against impunity for murders of journalists, in Serbia, Europe and the World,“ said Veran Matić, president of the Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists in Serbia, adding that since April last year, information has been circulating that after the open session of the Court of Appeal an acquittal had been rendered.

„It is inexplicable that it took nine months to write the verdict. I do not have answers to the many questions that may be asked about this final judgment. This is a big defeat for the society in Serbia and for the political determination to punish violence against journalists“, said Matić.

The message of this verdict is clear, underlined Matić, „those who endanger the safety of journalists and kill journalists can still count on the fact that there is almost no chance of being convicted“.

„That message is particularly striking today when we see the dramatic situation in which journalists find themselves in Serbia, and around the world,“ added Matić, recalling the decision of the prosecutor’s office regarding the investigation into the murder of journalist Milan Pantić, who was killed on June 11, 2001.

The day before the announcement of the verdict for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime announced that it will not investigate the murder of Milan Pantić, a journalist from Jagodina, a correspondent for Večernje Novosti daily.

Charges were not brought for that murder even 23 years after the crime. The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has now announced that after 16 months since it received the files of that case, there is allegedly no legal basis for them to deal with it. The case has been returned to where it stood cold in the dark – to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Jagodina.

To read more about impunity for the murder of Serbian journalist Milan Pantić and the IFJ calls for the masterminds and murderers to be identified and punished, check Murder of Serbian journalist Milan Pantić: 22 years of impunity.

Chilling effect

Fighters for free media and public speech as well as international organizations that advocate for the safety of journalists and democracy have condemned the scandalous decision of the Court of Appeal on the Ćuruvija case.

The Mission to Serbia of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international organization representing 57 states, reminded that this „judgment significantly deviates from the previous two first-instance court decisions and raises serious questions regarding the rule of law.“

The Head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia, Ambassador Jan Braathu, reminded Serbia of its obligation under the Decision on the Safety of Journalists, which was adopted by the OSCE Ministerial Council in Milan in 2018, and according to which the participating states should „take effective measures to end impunity for crimes against journalists“.

The Norwegian diplomat, Jan Braathu, „stated with regret that there is no justice and no responsibility for the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija“.

In a joint statement, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media, RFoM, Teresa Ribeiro, together with the head of the OSCE Mission toSerbia, Jan Braathu, expressed their astonishment at the acquittal.

„The impunity of the heinous crime is not only painful for Ćuruvija’s family and colleagues, but also disappointing for the entire Serbian society“, they stated, pointing out that the verdict raises serious issues related to the rule of law in Serbia.

„A terrible blow to freedom of the press. Impunity for killers of journalists and their sponsors is an insult to democracy!“ wrote Dominique Pradalié, president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

„The acquittal of the suspected murderers of Slavko Ćuruvija is a terrible blow to journalists and the media community in Serbia, but also to democracy and the rule of law. This is a complete breakdown of the system that sends a clear message that the crime, the murder of a journalist, goes unpunished”, stated Maja Sever, the president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ).

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) assessed that the acquittal of former members of the Serbian Security Service, who were previously convicted for their role in the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, „is a huge blow to justice and to all those who worked tirelessly for decades to end impunity in the killing”.

“It sends a chilling message to the already throttled media community in Serbia that journalist killings will go unpunished. We call on the Serbian authorities to ensure that all those involved in the murder of Ćuruvija are brought to justice”, CPJ stated, ending by noting that Ćuruvija was persecuted by Serbian authorities for his journalistic work.

“The acquittal drags Serbia down to the abyss of impunity, and with it, the whole society. Our thoughts go out to the family of Slavko Ćuruvija and his colleagues-journalists in the region who risk feeling a chilling effect on their work. Reporters without borders is standing by you”, stated Reporters without Borders, RSF.

“Disheartening to see that justice and accountability for the killers of Slavko Ćuruvija remain elusive, even 25 years after his murder. A sad day for journalism”, commented USA Ambassador to Serbia, Christopher Hill.

The International Press Institute (IPI) announced that „the release of the State Security officers twice convicted of the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija in 1999 is an abysmal failure of the rule of law and a devastating blow to media freedom and the fight against impunity”.

Look at your mirror reflection

Journalist Slavko Ćuruvija was killed on Orthodox Easter, April 11, 1999, around 5:00 p.m. on Svetogorska Street, in the corridor in front of number 35, the building where he lived in Belgrade.

Ćuruvija was shot in the back, one shot hit him in the head, and the other went through his heart. The killers pistol-whipped Slavko’s partner Branka Prpa, who was with him.

According to the information leaked from the secret police file „Ćuran“, Ćuruvija and his partner were followed by 27 members of the State Security in three shifts until just before his death.

The decision of the Court of Appel in Belgrade in the murder trial that began in 2015 is – final.

A gathering is organised on 5 february at 2 pm in front of the Appellate Court at Nemanjina 9 in Belgrade. „For Slavko. For those of us who have lost their breath“ reads the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation’s invitation to the event.

“Come, bring your friends and relatives, and bring a mirror – let’s show the judiciary its own reflection“, reads again the invitation which, in addition to the Slavko Ćuruvi Foundation, is organized by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, the Association of Online Media, Local Press, Trade Union KUM Nezavisnost, Journalists’ Association of Serbia and Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

In the pitch darkness in which we are living, the only light left is the whiteness of sclera. We must look each other in the eye in our quest for truth and justice inside Pandora’s box.

The more of us there are, the stronger the light will be.