Start of trial for arson attack on house of journalist Milan Jovanović delayed

The trial of Dragoljub Simonović, former president of the Belgrade suburban municipality of Grocka, who is charged with ordering last December's arson attack on the house of Žig info portal journalist Milan Jovanović, has been postponed until 24th May, after Simonović and his lawyer failed to appear in court.

The court was told that Simonović has not received a subpoena, nor has the indictment handed to him.

The indictment itself seeks that the court convict him to a maximum sentence of eight years imprisonment for ordering the firebomb attack on the journalist’s house.

After his house was burned down in the middle of the night of 12^th December last year, journalist Milan Jovanović immediately expressed suspicion that Simonović was behind the attack, and that this was an act of revenge for articles published on the Žig info portal regarding alleged affairs involving the then municipal president.

Simonović was arrested more than a month after Jovanović barely escaped the blaze with his life and found himself left homeless.

The indictment also includes Simonović’s alleged accomplices, with the prosecution seeking terms of five years each for two of the accused – Vladimir Mihajlović and Igor Novaković – and six years for Aleksandar Marinković, the defendant accused of directly perpetrating the attack.