Journalist Veran Matic Assaulted in Front of Parliament Building

Veran Matic (BETAPHOTO/SASA DJORDJEVIC)

Chairman of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media and member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, Veran Matic, was attacked in front of the Serbian parliament building around 8 p.m. on June 17.

Matic was assaulted while filming a public gathering outside the building with his cellphone, when an unidentified young man snatched the phone from his hand, even though Matic said he was a journalist and asked for his phone back, the Association said in a statement on June 18.

The phone was given back to him only after the order was given by Djordje "Prela" Prelic, who is known to Matic as the leader of the former football fan group Alcatraz and one of the individuals convicted of participating in the murder of French football fan Brice Taton in 2009.

The Association said the case was reported to the police, calling for an urgent reaction from institutions and underscoring that the attack on Matic "must not be treated out of the context of the campaign that has been led against the journalist for a while now."

The incident occurred near Pionirski Park, which has been blocked for more than a year, as government supporters have set up an encampment in it, dubbed "Caciland."

Djordje "Prela" Prelic, according to media reports, was spotted at previous rallies of Serbian Progressive Party supporters in Belgrade and other cities.

In 2011, while he was on the run, Prelic was sentenced to 35 years in prison as the organizer of the attack on Brice Taton, but his sentence was first reduced to 15, then to 12, and finally to 10 years.