26. 05. 2004

Suspended sentence for libel conviction

NOVI SAD, May 26, 2004 – The Municipal Court in Novi Sad has sentenced Gradjanski List journalist Ljiljana Jokic-Kaspar to six months in prison, suspended for two years, after convicting her for libel. The complaint against Jokic-Kaspar was laid by Miroslav Savic, a former surgeon for the police Special Operations Unit, over an article in which she alleged that Savic, in addition to his surgical duties, was also engaged as a marksman by the unit. During the police crackdown on organised crime in the wake of the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic last year, media reported that the former police surgeon "and sniper" was working in the Cardiovascular Institute in Sremska Kamenica. Savic denied ever having been a sniper and laid libel complaints against a number of periodicals in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Some of the charges have since been withdrawn. The charges against Jokic-Kaspar were not withdrawn, although her article was published long after the initial reports about Savic. Defence lawyers, commenting on the ruling, described it as an attempt to re-establish thought crime as a criminal offence.