Curuvija trial: Key evidence included in third attempt

The trial of former members of the State Security for the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija continued on Wednesday in the Special Court in Belgrade.

The court reviewed a report on expert analysis of communications as one of the key evidences of the prosecution.

According to the prosecution and the Curuvija family lawyers, although the defendants testified that they were in another location when the murder took place, this report confirms that the accused Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romic were at the scene of the crime.

The Special Court, at the request of the defense, had previously decided twice to exclude this evidence from the case file, but the Appellate Court ruled to include it for a second time on Tuesday.

That is why the report of a specialized expert from the Security Intelligence Agency was shown in the courtroom today, which was previously requested by the preliminary procedure judge in this process. Until March 2018, this report had been marked secret.

Wednesday's hearing started with a delay, because at the very beginning, the judge gave the defense an hour and a half to consider the latest decision of the Appellate Court restoring this evidence to the proceedings.

As Insajder reported on Tuesday, the Appellate Court again accepted the prosecutor's appeal in the process for the murder of Curuvija, finding that the databases from (telephone) base stations had been obtained in a lawful manner - something that the defense had previously contested.

After the latest decision of the Appellate Court, and after the defense withdrew the request to exempt this evidence, the Trial Chamber of the Special Court ruled that the evidence be included in the proceedings.

As the Chairperson of the Trial Chamber Snezana Jovanovic said, a report on the re-recording and review of forensic analysis was made in 2012 and contains 17 annexes. It was...

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