Bosnian Journalist Probing Youngster's Death Defies Minister's Lawsuit

A journalist facing a lawsuit from the Bosnian Serb interior minister over his reporting on 21-year-old David Dragicevic's death said it would not stop him from reporting on this and similar cases.

The Republika Srpska Interior Minister Dragan Lukac said that he had submitted a criminal complaint against David Dragicevic's father, Davor, and Slobodan Vaskovic, after the reporter made a series of accusations against Lukac on his blog reporting on the young man's death.

Dragicevic's body was found in a shallow river in Banja Luka, the administrative capital of Republika Srpska, on March 24, six days after he went missing. The police first said that he most likely drowned, but the fact that his body was covered in bruises sparked public protests and pressures on authorities to conduct a second autopsy.

The findings from this revealed that the body had been in the river for between two to four days, raising concerns over what happened to Dragicevic for the first two days after his disappearance.

The inconsistent findings and police statements enraged the public, who started to speculate that the authorities were trying to cover up what happened to the victim.

"Lukac has filed a lawsuit against me for defamation, not criminal complaint and is seeking 4,000 euros for mental anguish," the Banja Luka-based journalist and blogger told BIRN.

But Vaskovic said it would not prevent him from reporting on this case or on other cases of criminal and corruption in Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity.

Lukac claimd he was the victim of untruths said about him, false reporting, and accusations of complicity in the death of David Dragicevic whose body was found on March 24.

Speaking before the RS assembly on Thursday, Lukac announced he...