The murder that shook Serbia

The time for appeals by the defense attorneys of Zoran Marjanović, who was first-instance sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of his wife Jelena on April 2, 2016, on the embankment in the Belgrade neighborhood of Borča, has expired. The Court of Appeals will review the case again in the coming months and either issue a final verdict or order a new trial. Let us remind you that Jelena Marjanović's disappearance was reported by her husband, only about six hours after the report, the police agreed to search for the woman, and the next day, April 3, 2016, her body was found in a nearby canal full of water.

photo: Tanjug

"There is no public appeal before the court", is an old lawyer's saying that describes the consequences when the presumption of innocence of a suspect or defendant is violated and how it affects the judicial process. The court of the public is usually represented by village ladies gathered at an evening assembly or prele, and in more modern times that role has been taken over by the tabloids. That's it - when they mark someone as guilty, "neither the Danube nor the Sava wash you away". Idle ladies on the prelude and tabloid journalists who find out "from reliable unnamed sources" make judgments based on "firm conviction". However, now the judges of the High Court in Belgrade judge without evidence, but out of "belief". Such is the case of the murder of the singer Jelena Marjanović, which during the investigation turned into a police, media and even political scandal, and now threatens to turn into a judicial one.

Namely, the verdict against Marjanović resembles novels from several centuries ago, when writers were paid according to the number of pages written. The president of the panel of judges, Jelena Škulić, wrote 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?

WHY HUSBAND DID NOT PLAY DETECTIVE

One of the key comments of Judge Škulić that sends Marjanović to prison is the question of why the husband did not investigate himself who was the murderer.

"If the accused Marjanović Zoran does not know who the murderer is and does not know the reason for which the victim Marjanović Jelena was killed, how is it possible that he has not taken absolutely anything to this day to at least try to discover and find out anything, especially as soon as in that situation (since it is about the murder of a person close to him and his family - his wife and mother of a minor child), by the nature of things he cannot be 'calm', but he is also not sure that something bad and something is regretted by ' NN killers' who expressed such intense anger and rage towards Jelena, it cannot happen to any of the remaining members of their family."

And really, after all, one wonders what the dozens of police officers involved in the investigation of the singer's murder were doing, as well as the entire Belgrade police who promised a quick solution to the case. Why their work and investigation if the husband was not engaged as a detective?

And the detective, in those days, was played even by the then Minister of Police, Nebojša Stefanović, who 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. 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.

Judge Jelena Škulić, according to Marjanović's defense attorneys, constructed the verdict in a way that neither the prosecutors in the indictment did. She simply either rejected the testimony of well-known experts, who did not speak in favor of the judges and prosecutors, or rewrote it by taking it out of context. Namely, a small trace of the blood of the murdered Jelena was found on the seat of the Marjanović family's car, the judge points this out in the verdict, but omits the part where the expert declared that he did not know how old that trace was.

The witnesses, such as the teacher of the child of the married couple Marjanović, who said that it was a harmonious family, Judge Škulić belittles in her verdict and calls what the witnesses say "babbling". Namely, that teacher came to Marjanović's house shortly after Jelena's disappearance to be with the child and look after him while most of the family members were looking for the victim. In front of the court, she said that the tabloid writings were not true and that she did not see any bloody things in the house and that no one cleaned the bathroom with a sponge that can remove DNA traces. When the teacher recounted what was discussed in that house, immediately after the report of Jelena's disappearance, Judge Škulić stated:

"...and then the witness normally blurts out that she was not kidnapped by someone".

POLITICALLY CONVICTED, BEFORE THE TRIAL

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. The arrest was preceded by a true reality show. In the middle of the investigation, Zoran Marjanović entered the reality show Zadruga on Pink TV, he said that he will try to prove to the public that he is innocent. Even then, unofficial information was spread through the tabloids that Marjanović would be arrested in the reality show. This was followed by the abuse of Marjanović's child, a five-year-old girl who was brought to the reality show to visit her father. Marjanović is leaving the reality show because the social services allegedly threatened to take away his child. Immediately after leaving the reality show, Marjanović was arrested by the police with the explanation that "crown evidence" had been found. All this is followed by the President of the country Aleksandar Vučić, who by commenting on the arrest of Zoran Marjanović practically pronounced the verdict:

"Such monsters deserve the greatest punishment. When someone pierces the skull of the mother of his child so many times... I will support a bill that would make the punishments for this kind of violence even harsher than they are today."

DOUBTS AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES AS JUDGMENT

One of the inspectors who worked on the investigation into the murder of Jelena Marjanović tells "Vreme" that it was clear to him from the beginning that Zoran was not the murderer.

"The Marjanović family is strange for primitive environments; they usually dress in black, men have long hair, Jelena's mother-in-law was a bioenergetic or witch doctor, but... Being a weirdo is not a crime. "Zoran Marjanović could be an aide to the killer or an orderer, but the executor, for which he is being tried, is not, and there is evidence for that," says the inspector, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of political reprisal.

According to the reconstruction of the police and the prosecutor's office, Jelena was first attacked in a meadow not far from the track. She tried to defend herself, as evidenced by stab wounds on her hands, a sock pulled off one foot and torn underwear. It is clear that the killer dragged him to the canal where, apparently, in the water, he repeatedly hit the back of his head with a metal object, given that no larger amount of blood was found anywhere else. He then submerged her in the water and, according to the autopsy findings, she drowned. The homicide inspector points out that the killer must have been wet up to the waist, due to entering the canal, but also very bloody, due to the large amount of blood that splattered. Zoran Marjanović was neither wet nor had a drop of blood on him.

The prosecution completely ignored important information from the investigation. On the underwear of Jelena Marjanović, in the back area, a DNA trace of an unknown male person was found. Only a killer could have left that mark as he dragged her towards the canal, holding her underwear and tracksuit. It did not match any DNA traces taken from potential suspects during the investigation. A DNA trace was also found on the outside of the victim's nail, the origin of which has not been determined. It was found to be from a male person who is not a family member. But the police never found out whose DNA it was.

The killer left a footprint on the other side of the canal while he was running away. This was recorded by crime technicians, but the prosecutor's office did not ask to fully determine whose trace it was. By the way, there are no security cameras in that part of the embankment, so it is not surprising that the killer managed to escape.

PERFECT CRIME IN 8 MINUTES...

On the day of the crime, Zoran Marjanović's phone base station did not register for 26 minutes, more precisely from 16 hours and 38 minutes (that's when Jelena got on the jogging track) until 17:4 p.m. and 8 minutes when he called his wife for the first time. Of that total time, XNUMX minutes represent the real mystery.

Namely, according to mobile telephony data, at 16 hours, 56 minutes and 52 seconds, Jelena's phone entered the zone of another base station. She was still alive. The movement of the mobile phone shows that, at that very moment, she is moving from the track in the direction of the canal. That was most likely the moment of the crime. Jelena's body was found in a canal a day later, a few tens of meters away from the running track. From 16 hours and 56 minutes on Jelena's phone, there are no more base station changes until 17 hours and 4 minutes, when the first missed call from her husband Zoran is registered on her phone.

The court believes that during those famous 8 minutes, Marjanović beat Jelena, wrestled with her, dragged her towards the canal, threw her into the water, then beat and strangled her again, he managed to hide her jacket in a part of the muddy shore, he also hid a weapon, changed his clothes put on new sneakers, pants, sweatshirt, somehow cleaned himself of the blood and hid the dirty wardrobe. He did all of this completely unnoticed, leaving not even the smallest DNA trace anywhere at the sites of attacks and crimes. Then he returned about a kilometer back, to the child, who didn't even notice that he was gone, and then he started walking along the path with his daughter, supposedly looking for his already murdered wife...

Although the judges believe that Marjanović switched off his phone to commit the crime, his defense attorneys say that mobile telephony denied this:

"When the mobile phone is not used and when you do not take any actions on it in terms of calling, sending messages, surfing the Internet and the like, it translates into a state of rest. So, if you do not perform any activities with your mobile phone during that period, the network does not register it and that is a simple explanation. So, during that period, Zoran Marjanović was walking with the child, he was not using the phone and that's it, the matter is very simple," say the lawyers of the convicted husband. However, the High Court did not pay attention to such expert examination of Marjanović's phone.

DOES JUSTICE JUDGE FAIRLY?

Immediately after the sentencing, Zoran Marjanović was taken to a cell to await the final court decision behind bars. The Court does not allow his minor daughter to visit her father. Although the daughter of Jelena and Zoran Marjanović was assessed by psychologists as an above-average child who tells the truth, the High Court did not take her testimony into account. Let's recall that the girl said that her father played with her at the time of the crime, never leaving her alone or with someone else for a minute, and that they don't know how her mother disappeared.

At a time when the judiciary is drowning in political influence, it is interesting to note that the prosecutor Jelena Biorčević Cerović, who brought the indictment against Marjanović, soon after advanced and became the head of the Third Basic Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade. The portal Nova.rs recently revealed that prosecutors who were themselves accused of violence against their spouses or who did not respond to domestic violence were promoted to higher positions from that prosecutor's office or still work there, so the women who called them for help killed. However, justice seems to be blind when it should deal with the judiciary.

When it comes to Judge Jelena Škulić, she advanced a few months after the verdict against Zoran Marjanović and entered the Court of Appeal, the same one that will issue a final verdict in the case of the singer's murder in the following period. Many were surprised by the decision of the High Council of the Judiciary, given that Jelena Škulić is one of the youngest in the position, having become a judge in 2014. When it comes to marriage, according to the media, she is the wife of Milan Škulić, a professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade and a judge of the Constitutional Court. Both are considered respected friends of people in power.

Numerous interlocutors from the judiciary tell "Vreme" that the decision of the court panel to convict Zoran Marjanović as the murderer of his wife seems to contradict the legal postulate "No one is guilty until proven otherwise". The interlocutors of "Vremen" state that it has not been proven that Marjanović is the murderer of his wife, but the judges, as they themselves state in the verdict, are of "firm conviction". This "belief" is not supported by material evidence, because there is none. According to the law, in order to be convicted, someone's guilt must be unequivocally proven, because the main goal of every criminal procedure is "Better a hundred guilty people at large, than one innocent person in prison."