Photo: Bojan StekićFour members of the DB were convicted for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija. Branka Prpa, who was a witness to the murder, says that at no point in the investigations or in the lawsuits was there any mention of the client and that is why the entire court process is a farce.
"This verdict did not put an end to the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, three points were put because the question of who ordered the murder of an independent journalist was never raised," historian and former wife of Slavko Ćuruvija Branka Prpa told Vreme regarding the second-instance verdict handed down today. Special court for the murder of the journalist and owner of "Dnevni Telegraf".
On Easter, April 11, 1999, Slavko Ćuruvija was at the entrance of the building where he lived in Svetogorska Street in Belgrade killed with 17 shots from behind. Prpa witnessed the liquidation.
She believes that the answers to the questions of who gave the order and who commissioned the murder are fundamentally important for the future of this country and the journalistic profession.
Four members of the State Security (DB) were sentenced yesterday in the Special Court to a total of 100 years in prison, and in the confirmed verdict, an unknown person was again named as the direct perpetrator of the Ćuruvija assassination.
U April 2019 this court sentenced four members of the State Security to serve the same prison sentence. However, the first-instance verdict for this murder was overturned due to the introduction of an unidentified person in the final epilogue, which led to an overcharge of the charge.
Branka Prpa believes that this is not a new verdict, but a verdict in the same form as the previous one. She adds that this is all a "shameful game", because in this case the prosecutor questioned the verdict, based on the testimony of Milorad Luković Legija, who is "not a relevant witness at all".
"First of all, this is a farce that has been going on for more than two decades. We are talking about the verdict against members of the State Security who killed an independent journalist. At no time, never in the investigations or in all the lawsuits filed by the prosecutors, was there any mention of the person who commissioned that murder," says Prpa.
According to her, if the murder was committed by the DB, then it is clear that the state is behind that murder, that is, those who were in power in that state at the time. Prpa emphasizes that this verdict has consequences only for civil servants, not for those who ordered the murder.
"We fall into that logical trap again: will we ever find out who the NN person was?" And the question should be the other way around: will it ever be known who gave the order for that murder. That is a question that has never been asked. It is a shame for this country, absolute and total," says Prpa.
The then head of DB Radomir Marković and Milan Radonjić were sentenced to 30 years each, while Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romić were sentenced to 20 years in prison each.
As an eyewitness, Branko Prpa claims from the beginning of the trial that he does not recognize any of the accused as the man who shot in Ćuruvija.
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