The former president of the municipality of Grocka, Dragoljub Simonović, was sentenced today in the High Court to five years in prison for inciting other persons to commit the crime of causing public danger. On the night of December 11-12, 2018, those other persons, the three of them, set fire to the car of the wife of Milan Jovanović, the journalist of the "Žig info" portal, and the fire then spread to the garage and the house, while Jovanović and his wife were sleeping.
As the perpetrators of this act, Vladimir Mihajlović was sentenced to four years in prison, Aleksandar Marinković to four years and six months, and Vladimir Novaković to three years and six months in prison.
Marinković was tried in absentia as he has been on the run since 2020, and an international warrant has been issued for him.
This is the second first-instance verdict, since the first, by which all the defendants were sentenced to prison terms, was annulled by the Court of Appeal and ordered a retrial.
Simonović categorically denied the accusations from the beginning of the process, and Jovanović claimed that he was attacked solely because of his writing about the affairs of the Mayor of the Municipality of Grocka.
All defendants have the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Let us recall that the investigation established that the mayor of the Grocka municipality ordered Vladimir Mihailović, a police officer from the intervention unit of the police, to burn down the journalist's house, and Simonović would hire his wife in return.
The policeman then hired Igor Novaković, who gave the address to Aleksandar Marinković and Bojana Cvetković Šijacka. On the night of December 12, 2018, Marinković threw two Molotov cocktails into the house.
At today's hearing, Aleksandar Marinković's lawyer claimed that during the proceedings it was not proven that his client threatened the life and work of Jovanović and his wife, which is charged in the indictment, nor that, as he says, he threatened their property on a larger scale. Marinković's defense attorney requested an acquittal for his client.
Simonović was arrested after great pressure from international institutions, and the public was informed of his arrest by the head of the SNS and the president of the country, Vučić.
S.Ć./FoNet/N1
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