Politician continues lawsuits against journalist who was beaten last year

Dragoljub Simonovic, former president of the Belgrade suburban municipality of Grocka and an official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), has sued Željko Matorčević, editor of local portal Zig info, for a ninth time.

Also writing for this portal is Milan Jovanović, whose house was firebombed last December, with Simonović charged with having ordered the arson attack, while Matorčević himself was also beaten by an unknown assailant in October last year, sustaining serious injuries.

In response to the publishing of an article under the headline “Arrogant Progressive Again Caught Lying! Police Report Refutes Grocka’s First Man”, Simonović is seeking damages be paid by the editor of Zig Info in the amount of 300,000 dinars (+/- US$3,000). Culminating with this lawsuit, Simonović has demanded that this journalist pay him a total of three million dinars (+/- $30,000).

Matročević views the lawsuit against him as the exerting of pressure. Due to the number of lawsuits, he expects to attend daily hearings with Simonović during September, October and November, and he says he’s already worried about how he will function during that period.