Ratko Romić

Belgrade Court of Appeal has ended the house arrest order for two Serbian State Security operatives, Ratko Romic and Milan Radonjic, who are currently being retried for participation in murder of prominent opposition Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija in April 1999.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on Tuesday that Serbia violated the rights of Milan Radonjic and Ratko Romic, who are being tried for involvement in the 1999 murder of prominent Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija.

Former Serbian State Security Unit for Special Operations, commander Milorad "Legija" Ulemek, refused to answer questions about the murder of Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija at the Belgrade Court of Appeal.

Legija told the court that he stands by his 2014 statement from the investigation and his 2016 statement from the first trial.

Former head of Serbian State Security Radomir Markovic repeated to the appeal court that he is not guilty for the 1999 murder of the Serbian journalist and editor Slavko Curuvija.

Markovic claimed that Curuvija was only put under state surveillance "due to his contacts with foreign intelligence agencies …The task of every state security is to establish the nature of these contacts".

Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday found four former Serbian state security employees guilty after a retrial of the murder in 1999 of journalist and editor Slavko Curuvija, who was known for his opposition to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

"When I came to [daily newspaper] Borba in 1990, he was a reporter and political analyst, and known for writing a couple of pamphlets, one of which I remember was about the people from Goli Otok [political prison in Socialist Yugoslavia]," Gunjic recalled.

Accused of participating in the April 11, 1999 murder, the then head of the Belgrade State Security Center (DB), Milan Radonjic, and DB's inspector, Ratko Romic, reiterated at the end of the trial that "they are not guilty and the indictment was mounted to convict the DB."

The Chairman of Serbia's Commission for Investigating Murders of Journalists during Slobodan Milosevic's regime, Veran Matic, told BIRN that investigators still face grave risks doing their job.

After reading the verdict, the president of the Trial Chamber announced that the accused Radomir Markovic and Milan Radonjic were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romic received 20 years each, Prva TV reported on Friday.

If closing arguments begin during the continuation of the trial for the murder of Slavko Curuvija, the Deputy Prosecutor will have the opportunity to highlight some of the most important evidence.