29. 10. 2005

MILANOVIC PRIVILEGED?

BELGRADE, October 29, 2005 – Serbian Justice Minister denies the privileged treatment of Dragoljub Milanovic, former RTS director, in the Pozarevac prison Zabela. Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic strenuously criticized Radio Television Serbia saying that “the station was back on working for one political party like before”. Stojkovic, however, did not want to name the party, but rather instructed journalists to follow the reports of the press. The minister also said that he had denied earlier the reports of the media on the former RTS director, sentenced for being responsible for deaths of the station’s workers during the NATO bombing. “When the first stories on Milanovic’s treatment in the prison started, I found out that he was denied his elementary rights just because of such media campaign”, said Stojkovic. Stojkovic reacted to the report of the state television station on the treatment of its former director Milanovic in the prison saying that such reporting was “false and dangerous”. “They (RTS) have carried a statement given by a prisoner from Sremska Mitrovica in May, who said that corruption was present in the Serbian prisons. This statement, however, has been taken out of context, referring to the period between 2001 and 2002. The national television, also watched by prisoners, thus creates the grounds for insurrection”, Stojkovic said. The minister also said he would not allow the new “burning of prisons”. Ljiljana Milanovic, wife of Dragoljub Milanovic, claims her husband does not have privileged treatment in Pozarevac prison. After the families of the RTS workers killed in the bombing had filed a complaint to the justice minister against the authorities for securing privileged treatment for the former RTS director in prison, Ljiljana Milanovic denied the claims that her husband had the privilege of free weekends or permission to go to the city. She wrote to the media stating that Milanovic had served three years and four months, which is one third of his 10-year prison sentence. Milanovic was arrested in April 2003 in Montenegro, during the “Saber” police action, because he failed to show up in Zabela for serving the prison sentence.