Tanzania and Ethiopia silent on Curuvija murder suspect

Tanzania and Ethiopia silent on Curuvija murder suspect

The Interior Ministry (MUP) told Insajder that they sent a request to locate and arrest Kurak to the General Secretariat of Interpol, as well as their offices in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

However, according to the MUP, the authorities in these countries have not responded to date. Insajder, on the other hand, did not receive a clear answer from the MUP on whether a targeted search had been conducted for Kurak.

"In accordance with its legal authority, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is taking all measures and actions necessary to find and deprive of liberty all persons for whom the judicial authorities have issued a warrant," the MUP said.

The trial of four members of the State Security Service (RDB), charged with the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija, began in 2015. Miroslav Kurak, a member of the State Security reserves, charged as the direct perpetrator of the murder, remains on the run. He was ordered under custody by the court, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

His name as the perpetrator of Curuvija's murder was first publicly mentioned by the leader of the Serb Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj, who later denied it. That some information had come to the SRS leader was later confirmed by witnesses-collaborators in statements made before the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, including Dejan Milenkovic aka Bagzi, who said that he was present when Milorad Ulemek aka Legija and Dusan Spasojevic quarreled about giving information to Seselj about Curuvija's murderers.

Some witnesses, during the investigation, claimed they saw Miroslav Kurak and Ratko Romic, another RDB officer, near the place where Curuvija was killed on April 11, 1999, immediately before the crime was committed.

Subsequent checks have determined, based on analyzed data from telephone base stations, that Romic and Kurak were indeed near the place where Curuvija was liquidated at the time of the murder. This evidence was on two occasions dismissed by the Trial Chamber, at the request of the defense. But the Appellate Court recently ruled to include this evidence, after the prosecutor appealed.

There have also been media reports, referring to sources from the investigation, that at the end of February 2006, Kurak received in the Belgrade club Varadero in Makis information from a witness, who was interviewed by police inspector Dragan Kecman. According to this, Kurak was told that the inspector asked the witness about the murder of Slavko Curuvija. Kurak then reportedly said: "Kecman needs to be cooled off" - and according to the media, there is an audio recording of that conversation.