specialist in forensic medicine, he might have made a mistake or missed
some details.
2.6 The parents of the victim filed criminal charges against a number of
police officers before the Public Prosecutor in Šabac. On 19 February 1996,
the Public Prosecutor dismissed the charges. Under Yugoslav law, following
dismissal of a criminal complaint, the victim or the person acting on his
behalf may either request the institution of investigative proceedings or file
an indictment and proceed directly to trial. In the present case, the parents
presented their own indictment on 25 February 1996.
2.7 The investigating judge questioned the policemen allegedly involved as
well as witnesses and found no grounds for believing that the alleged
criminal offence had been committed. The Criminal Bench of the Šabac
District Court endorsed the investigating judge's decision. The Court did not
find it necessary to hear the testimony of the two forensic experts and did
not consider the possibility of ordering an exhumation and a new autopsy.
Besides, the investigating judge delivered to the parents an unsigned
statement which the pathologist allegedly made in court when they were not
present and which contradicts the one he had made in writing on 18 July
1995. The author further explains that, in addition to the medical
contradictions, there were many other conflicting facts that the judicial
investigation failed to clarify.
2.8 The parents appealed the decision of the District Court to the Serbian
Supreme Court, which on 29 October 1996 dismissed the appeal as
unfounded. According to the ruling, the testimony of Dragan Markovic
showed without any doubt that Milan Ristic was alive at the time when
police officers Sinisa Isailovic and Zoran Jeftic appeared in front of the
building in which Mr. Markovic lived. They were responding to a telephone
call from a person named Zoran Markovic who had noticed a man at the
edge of the terrace from whose behaviour it could be concluded that he was
about to commit suicide. Dragan Markovic and the two policemen actually
saw Milan Ristic jump from the terrace. There was nothing they could do to
stop him.
2.9 The parents again tried to bring the case before the judiciary, but on 10
February 1997 the Šabac District Court ruled that prosecution was no longer
possible in view of the decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia. On 18
March 1997, the Supreme Court dismissed their further appeal and
confirmed the District Court's ruling.
The complaint