Members of disbanded Serbian Security Service indicted over journalist murder

Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has filed after 15 years an indictment against four members of the former State Security Service (DB) for murder of Slavko Curuvija, a journalist and owner of the short-lived Belgrade’s daily Dnevni telegraf, the Serbian newswire B92 reported June 6.

“The person who gave the direct order [to kill Curuvija] on April 11, 1999, according to what has been learned so far, was Radomir M.,” said the prosecutor, Milijko Radosavjevic, as cited by the newswire. “Whether we will get to a higher level, to someone who was above him – we’ll see. We have to wait for the investigation to proceed further.”

Apart from Radomir M., a former head of Serbia’s DB, the prosecution also filed indictment against Milan R., a head of the DB’s Balgrade Center, Ratko R., a chief intelligence inspector of the DB administration, and Miroslav K., a member of the service’s administration reserve.

Radomir M., who is currently serving 40 years imprisonment for the murder of Ivan Stambolic and assassinations on the Ibar highway of SPO party officials, has been charged with incitement to murder, while the other are accused as his co-perpetrators. Earlier this year the Serbian media reported that it is believed that Miroslav K. was the one who pulled the trigger and shot Slavko Curuvija dead. Milan R. and Radko R. were arrested in January 2014, after the prosecution’s key witness’ statement, and are in the custody since then, while Miroslav K. is on the run.

A key witness in the investigation, upon whose testimony Milan R. and Radko R. were detained, was former commander of the Police Special Operations Unit (JSO) Milorad Ulemek, aka Legija, who is himself serving multiple maximum sentences for his role in the assassination of Zoran Dindic and other serious crimes. As announced by Prosecutor Miljko Radosavljević, Ulemek testified on his own initiative and unconditionally, and spoke in detail about what he knew about the Ćuruvija’s assasination.

The other prosecution witness is Branka Prpa, a spouse of Slavko Curuvija, who testified during the investigation for the first time since the murder, which took place on April 11, 1999. Prpa, who was with Curuvija when the he was killed, stated that it was not Miroslav K., who pulled the trigger and shot the journalist.