The police arrested one of the two persons who physically attacked the BN Television's (BN TV) journalist in an incident that took place in Banja Luka last month, confirmed Dragan Lukac, the Republika Srpska (RS) entity Interior Minister.
Addressing the media on Monday, Minister Lukac said one person has been arrested after a thorough investigation and that the police had sufficient evidence to believe this was one of the perpetrators of the attack.
The District Prosecutor's Office in Banja Luka confirmed later on Monday that the prosecutor in charge interrogated one, Marko Colic, and requested a detention over a suspicion that he was one of the persons who attacked the reporter.
BN TV's Vladimir Kovacevic, suffered severe injuries on August 26 in front of his building after, as he said, two unknown persons had approached and beaten him with expandable batons. The District Prosecutor's Office in Banja Luka assessed the attack as attempted murder.
The attack was condemned by foreign institutions and associations of journalists who gathered in several cities across the country a day later, to express support to the injured reporter and to ask from the authorities to find and adequately punish the perpetrators.
“We have sufficient evidence that this is a perpetrator,” said the Interior Minister at the Monday press conference adding that the search for the second person has been intensified.
According to Lukac, the case had no political background and the authorities in the RS, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, had nothing to do with the attack on the journalist.
“We are going to see if there is a connection with some other politician or a person,” he added.
RS Police Administration Director thanked Kovacevic for collaborating in the investigation, adding that the police were familiar with the name of another potential suspect.
Kovacevic told N1 earlier on Monday that the investigation into the incident yielded results but that he was waiting for the institutions to provide the public with official information.
