Court of Appeal in Belgrade annulled the first-instance verdict against producer Pinka Nina Kovacevic, who was accused of hitting a girl with her car near a pedestrian crossing, for which she was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison and a five-year driving ban.
The first-instance verdict was handed down by the Second Basic Court in Belgrade.
Kovačević appealed, stating that during the adoption of the first-instance decision, there were significant violations of the criminal procedure, which the Court of Appeal accepted, CINS writes.
Expert witness reports
According to the opinion of the Appellate Court, the judgment of the Second Basic Court did not explain why the opinion of Dr. Stojan Stojanović, appointed by the prosecution, was accepted, and not the testimony of the expert advisor, Dr. Milan Vujanić, hired by the defense.
Stojanović's finding on the cause of the traffic accident was completely opposite to Vujanić's finding.
According to Stojanović, the cause of the accident was that Kovačević vehicles fast and on the part of the road where she was not allowed to move, which is why she did not notice the girl's movement in time and started to brake. Vujanić, on the other hand, emphasized the responsibility of the girl who did not make sure that she could cross safely before entering the road.
"The first-instance court was obliged to present clear and well-argued reasons for its position, which is why it accepts the findings and opinion of the expert Dr. Stojanović, and not the testimony of the expert advisor," the Court of Appeal announced.
Drunkenness relegated to the background
Also, according to the opinion of the Appellate Court, the judgment of the Second Basic Court did not explain on the basis of which the cause-and-effect relationship between the movement of the defendant's vehicle on the tramway and endangerment was established traffic.
The Court of Appeal states that in each specific case it must be precisely determined whether and in what way the driver's actions led to the accident.
The Appellate Court also states that the Second Basic Court in its explanation did not state sufficiently clear reasons as to whether the fact that Kovačević was drunk in the given case was the cause of the traffic accident.
The decision of the Court of Appeal means that the trial will be repeated.
New expert opinion rejected
Due to the conflicting opinion of the two traffic experts, the defense requested a re-examination during the first-instance proceedings, which the court then refused.
Kovačević was convicted in the first instance for causing a traffic accident on June 26, 2024, and in the explanation of the verdict it was stated that she was traveling on a part of the road reserved for public transport vehicles at a speed higher than the permitted speed.
Her blood alcohol level was 1,70 per thousand, although the legal maximum is 0,2 per thousand.
Even before this accident, Kovačević was subject to at least 16 misdemeanor proceedings, mostly for speeding, and she mostly received lighter sentences for those misdemeanors.
On several occasions, she was issued a driving ban, which she violated at least twice.
In one case, the police did not file a report against her, which, according to lawyers interviewed by CINS, allowed her to avoid the potential revocation of her driver's license. The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade opened a case related to possible failures in the work of the traffic police in that case.
Who is Nina Kovačević?
Kovačević is a producer. reality show of the "Cooperative" program, and she became known to the wider public when she showed the middle finger to citizens from the balcony of the Pinka building during the protests after the May massacres in 2023.
This gesture brought her a bad reputation because it came in response to civil demands in front of Pink to cancel reality programs that promote violence and demanded the withdrawal of the national frequency of this television.
