Photo: Tanjug/Sava Radovanović
"This decision has nothing to do with the first-instance verdict," lawyer Marko Pantić tells "Vreme" and adds that detention is not and must not be a substitute for serving a sentence.
The news that the Appellate Court lifted the custody of Zoran Marjanović, who was sentenced to 40 years last year for the murder of his wife, singer Jelena Marjanović, brought this case back into the spotlight of public interest.
This case has been attracting huge media attention for seven years.
Detention, explained in the announcement of the second-instance court, is the strictest measure to ensure the presence of the accused and the smooth conduct of the criminal proceedings.
The Court of Appeal made the decision "bearing in mind that the critical event took place on April 2, 2016, more than seven years ago, and that the defendant was deprived of his liberty only on September 15, 2017, and that he was in custody until July 12 in 2018, when his detention was revoked, and then that he was ordered to be detained again after the publication of the non-final verdict," the statement said.
To recall, the case of the murder of singer Jelena Marjanović turned into a police, media, and even political scandal during the investigation.
How is it for "time" journalist Jelena Zorić wrote about the case, the verdict against Marjanović resembled novels from several centuries ago, when writers were paid by the number of pages written.
The president of the panel of judges, Jelena Škulić, wrote the verdict on 698 pages. Verdicts and indictments are rarely so voluminous, especially for those tried for multiple murders and organized crime. Simply, if it is so clear that someone is a murderer, why would the court describe its convictions on hundreds of pages?
The murder of the singer, who was also the mother of a minor girl, became a field for asking countless questions, but unfortunately also unfounded comments in television programs, as well as tabloid headlines.
Detention is not a substitute for punishment.
"Zoran Marjanović was sentenced approximately four months ago, but there is a provision that gives the judge the right to order custody after the first-instance verdict, or if the person is already in custody, to cancel it or extend it," he told Vreme. lawyer Marko Pantić.
He also adds that detention is not and must not be a substitute for serving a sentence, while defense attorneys have the right to appeal every 60 days, and the court must check whether there is a reason for detention.
"This decision has nothing to do with the first-instance verdict, and given that the judge obviously did not find a reason for the defendant to remain in custody, i.e. there is no doubt that Marjanović will leave the country, influence witnesses, repeat the crime or disturb the public, it was canceled he is in custody. It certainly does not mean that the verdict will be revoked, and his human right is to wait for the decision from freedom," says Pantić.
Reality culture
Unfortunately, as Pantić says, this case had enormous popularity mainly because of the reality culture we live in, and it was on the front pages so many times that even if we didn't want to know about it, we had to.
After the murder of the singer seven years ago, the police minister at the time, Nebojša Stefanović, misinformed the public:
"You should know that the disappearance was reported four or five hours after the murder. For five hours, no one in the police knew that anyone was missing or that anything had happened. That is enough time for someone to prepare everything and then call the police."
That is not true, wrote Jelena Zorić for "Vreme".
Investigative journalists also published a recording in which it is heard that Zoran Marjanović reported the disappearance of his wife a few minutes after her disappearance. It was suspicious to him that he lost sight of his wife on the observation embankment, that is, that when he went to meet her with the child, he no longer saw her on the trim track. By the way, the police called her husband several times, during which he reported her missing, not that she didn't react, but, as you can hear on the video, she mocked him.
The investigation into the murder of singer Jelena Marjanović lasted 15 months when her husband Zoran Marjanović was arrested on suspicion of beating his wife to death. However, the evidence for which Marjanović was arrested was not sufficient to immediately bring him before the court, so the investigation continued. And only the third version of the indictment, written by Jelena Biorčević Cerović, was accepted in June 2019, i.e. after more than three years had passed since the murder.
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