Trial for arson attack on journalist’s home turned into humiliation of victims

The main defendant in the trial is Dragoljub Simonović, a former president of the Belgrade suburban municipality of Grocka and an official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, whose lawyers last week raised detailed questions regarding the reported damage to the fire gutted house, shifting the issue away from the endangering of the life of Jovanović and his wife to their property that they had for 40 years and then lost in just one night.

The fact that the trial has been ongoing for a year and a half and has been marked by obstruction on the part of the accused and their lawyers, as well as by attacks on other journalists, prompted Reporters Without Borders to appeal to judges on Twitter, prior to the start of last week’s court hearings, to utilise the opportunity and end impunity for the most serious crimes committed against journalists.