Collapse of the Rule of Law or Absence of Political Will

Protest against Acquittal in Curuvija Murder Case, Belgrade, Feb. 5 2024(BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Nearly 25 years after the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija the Court of Appeals in Belgrade acquitted again the four men charged with the murder, all of them former members of the State Security Service (today’s Security and Information Agency). Reactions to the verdict have been flooding in – some are disappointed, considering the court decision as a mirror of Serbia’s collapsing justice system and rule of law, while others hold that the state had never intended to resolve the murder in the first place. Be it as it may, the outcome is that no one turned out to be guilty of Curuvija's murder.