Milan Jovanovic, a journalist with a local 'Zig Info' website published in the Belgrade Grocka suburb, said on Monday that the overturned verdict for the municipality's head accused of inciting the burning down of his home was "another attempt of his life and a shot at independent media." Pročitaj više
„Dragoljub Simonovic (the former head of Grocka municipality) first tried to kill me while I was taking photos of railway sleepers, the second time he ordered mine and the murder of Zeljko Matorcevic (of the same website), and then he set my house on fire at 3 am… Will the Appellate Court now shoot at us… This is a shot at independent media,“ Jovanovic told the Nova daily.
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Speaking to N1 on Saturday, Jovanovic said the Court’s decision to annul first-instance verdict sentencing Simonovic to four years and three months in prison on charges of inciting other defendants to set on fire his property in December 2018, that he could expect such a decision.
Later on Monday, Veran Matic, the president of the Commission for Investigation of Murders of Journalists and a member of Serbia’s Government Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, said he asked for the return of the police protection to Jovanovic.
He also pledged for the collection of money for the restoration of Jovanovic’s house.
„I said that if we do not manage to collect at least a part of the funds in the next month, there is no reason for me to stay in that group,“ Matic told N1.
„I expected it would be a devastating but not such a shameful decision of our judicial system. I know that I live in a country where crime and nepotism reign, but I did not expect such rudeness that judges will discredit themselves. With this ruling, they sent a message that the freedom of the media does not exist,“ he said.
Simonovic was sentenced in the first-instance procedure to four years and three months in prison. The perpetrator Aleksandar Marinkovic, still at large, was sentenced to the same sentence, while Vladimir Mihailovic, a mediator, was sentenced to four years.
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