Turudić: Investigation into Nicolier's murder taken over by French institutions

Chief State Attorney Ivan Turudić said on Thursday, ahead of the funeral of French volunteer Jean-Michel Nicolier, that the investigation into his murder was suspended in 2019 due to Serbia's non-cooperation, and has now been taken over by French institutions.

“We issued a decision to conduct an investigation into the murder of Jean-Michel Nicolier in April 2018. We sent a letter of request to Serbia to question Spasoje Petković, nicknamed Štuka, but it was not complied with. There is a series of evidence in the preliminary proceedings, including his statement, that it was he who killed Nicolier. However, our request was not complied with by the Serbian side, just as a number of other such requests were not complied with,” Ivan Turudić told reporters.

“We were told that this is a res judicata matter, that it is a violation of the principle of "ne bis in idem" (not twice about the same thing) because Petković is a cooperating witness of the Serbian Prosecutor's Office, however, our search is much broader than what was covered in Serbia,” he added.

“He received this status in Serbia completely illegally and unnecessarily due to a criminal offense committed against the civilian population, but we are charging him with the criminal offense of war crimes against prisoners of war, which is much broader than what the Serbs did, but we were refused,” said the Chief State Attorney.

“The Serbs protested and managed to ensure that we did not even get an international arrest warrant for him, while we have a European arrest warrant and a national arrest warrant. Croatia did everything, but when we were faced with the Serbs' response in 2019, we terminated the investigation because it could not be completed and a meritorious state attorney's decision could not be made without Serbia's cooperation. They refused, and we will see what our French colleagues will achieve,” he said.

He noted that the French "were here yesterday" and we gave everything they asked for, the State Attorney’s Office had some, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs had some. “They were very satisfied with our cooperation and now,” he said, “we will see what happens next.”

When asked by reporters whether the investigation is in vain if Serbia does not cooperate, Turudić replied that it was shown in Croatia that it did not yield results due to Serbia's non-cooperation, but that this criminal offense is subject to the principle of universal jurisdiction, so France can prosecute him because he is a French citizen.

He commented the statement of witness Vilim Karlović that Petković did not kill Nicolier by saying that the State Attorney’s Office has enough information and has determined that Spasoje Petković is that person.

“The problem that I have been warning about all along is that there is no cooperation from the other side, not a voice of conscience that would say, that would ease the soul and tell what happened, and I am sure that there are some people walking around here who know a lot about it,” Turudić asserted.

Source: HRT