A Belgrade court on Friday sentenced four former secret police officers to prison for the 1999 murder of journalist and newspaper publisher Slavko Curuvija but ruled that the man who pulled the trigger was not among them.

The trial of the chief of the Milosevic regime’s State Security Departy (RDB) Radomir Markovic and three of his subordinates took just under four years to complete before the Organized Crime Court with the sentence being handed down just days before the 20th anniversary of the killing.  

Curuvija, a former analyst in the Yugoslav federal police ministry turned newspaper publisher, was gunned down in front of his apartment building on April 11, 1999 during the NATO air campaign following fierce attacks from pro-regime media which accused him of taking the side of the Alliance against Serbia. He is also known to have been a confidante of Slobodan Milosevic’s wife Mira Markovic who was alleged to have ordered the killing.

The four defendants were given a total of 100 years in prison. Markovic and Belgrade RDB centre chief Milan Radonjic were sentenced to 30 years each while RDB agents Ratko Romic and Miroslav Kurk got 20 years each. The court ruled that Markovic ordered Radonjic to organize the killing and that Romic and Kurak were ordered to commit it but that the person who fired the gun that killed Curuvija had not been identified during the trial.  

Kurak was sentenced in absentia and Markovic is already serving a 40 year sentence for the murder of opposition activists and the abduction and murder of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic.

The prosecution had requested the maximum sentences of 40 years for all four defendants while defence lawyers argued that they should be freed because their guilt had not been proven.  

Curuvija published the Dnevni Telegraf daily newspaper and Evropljanin weekly magazine both of which were fined under the Law on Information for critical stories about the Milosevic regime.

Curuvija Foundation, politicians, journalists satisfied with verdict  

Reactions to the court ruling were not too different among political parties, journalists’ associations and the Slavko Curuvija foundation with all of them expressing varying degrees of satisfaction.  

The Foundation said the verdict confirms clearly and unequivocally that the murder was organized by the government through the State Security Department but expressed disappointment that the court failed to hand down the maximum sentences. It added that the ruling will help society deal with politically motivated crimes and face what it said is the disastrous heritage of the Milosevic regime.  

President Aleksandar Vucic expressed great satisfaction that the trial had been brought to a conclusion, saying that a very important message had been sent. “A message that no one has the right to kill anyone, in any way for any reason even if they believe it is a matter of state,” he said.  

The opposition Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) said that justice had been only partially served. According to the PSG, the sentence handed down to the state security chief and his associates is a sentence against the Milosevic regime which was characterized by political murders and the persecution of journalists. A statement added that „the current regime is no different in terms of the people representing it and the methods it uses“.  

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) called state bodies to find the person who pulled the trigger killing Curuviju and added that it expects the verdict to be confirmed on appeal. It said the ruling is significant because it marks an end to impunity for crimes against journalists.