Slavko Ćuruvija

A witness at the trial for the 1999 murder of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija denied defence claims that evidence allegedly placing former State Security officers at the scene of the crime was obtained illegally.

Milan Radonjic and Ratko Romic, accused for the killing of journalist Slavko Curuvija, have been released to house arrest.

Reacting to this, Veran Matic, chairman of the Commission Investigating Murders of Journalists, said he was "surprised with the strange decision, especially as the fourth accused in the case, Miroslav Kurak, is still on the run."

A Serbian court has released two former State Security officers charged with participating in the 1999 murder of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija from custody and put them under house arrest.

Two retired Serbian State Security officers testified at a Belgrade court that opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija was shadowed by the secret service for a week before he was assassinated in 1999.

Serbian State Security surveillance operatives were misused so opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija could be killed in 1999, former head of National Security Goran Petrovic told Belgrade Special Court.

The Commission Investigating of Murders of Journalists supported the authorities bringing to justice the masterminds and perpetrators of the Curuvija murder.

In addition, the commission demanded that an effort be made to make the trial of the killers of the editor and owner of former Evropljanin and Dnevni Telegraf publications more efficient.

A former Serbian state security official told the trial for the murder of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija that the security service participated in planning the killing and destroyed evidence afterwards.

At the trial for the murder of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija, a former Serbian state security official testified that he was told in 2001 to arrest one of the defendants for the killing.

Former Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic told a Belgrade court that murdered opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija’s wife said she recognised the interior ministry operative who fired the deadly shots in 1999.

A study conducted in Bosna and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro by the Western Balkans Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists Safety, concludes that journalists remain vulnerable to physical attacks and other pressures, and have few ways of defending themselves effectively.