Montenegro May Seek Expert Help on Editor’s Unsolved Murder

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic at the commemoration in front of the daily 'Dan' building in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro.

The editor-in-chief and owner of the daily newspaper Dan, well known for his opposition to the then government, was shot dead on leaving his office in Podgorica on May 27, 2004. He had received numerous death threats.

Abazovic called on the Special State Prosecution to reopen the investigation and find the preparators.

"The government is ready to accept international expertise, which is one of the possibilities… The people who can still testify in this case should get some status of cooperated witnesses and do what they should be doing," Abazovic told the media.

In 2009, a former karate champion, Damir Mandic, was sentenced to 30 years for the killing, but the verdict was overturned in 2014, forcing a new trial. That ended in 2016 with a 19-year sentence.

Jovanovic's family and their lawyers say Mandic did not act alone and that the circumstances of the murder have never been fully clarified, nor the masterminds brought to justice.

On Friday, Jovanovic's sister, Danijela Pavicevic, said that family members were already contacted by the state prosecution.

"The former authorities and prosecutors didn't show any will to solve this murder, but the attitude of the new prosecutors towards this crime gives us optimism," she told the daily Vijesti.

Last May, former Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and then Deputy PM Abazovic vowed to solve the killing, expressing full support for the work of a special commission created under a previous government in 2014 to monitor investigations into such attacks.

Members of the new Commission, led by the program...