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The trial of Ognjen Dabetić, accused of murdering 18-year-old transgender woman Noa Milivojev in Belgrade in 2023, resumed at the city’s Higher Court on 8 October with the questioning of court-appointed experts. The court set closing arguments for 6 November, after which a first-instance verdict is expected.
According to the indictment by Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, Dabetić killed Milivojev on the night of 17 to 18 June 2023 in a flat he was renting in the city centre, out of base motives, hatred and intolerance, and in a treacherous manner. Her body was found in early July that year, when he was arrested. He is charged with aggravated murder, which carries a possible life sentence. At the start of the trial he briefly denied guilt.
Psychiatrist Bojana Kecman and psychologist Gordana Kovač both stood by the expert commission’s original and supplementary findings: that Dabetić was not legally insane at the time of the crime, although, as the state news agency Tanjug reported, his capacity was significantly diminished.
The defence lawyer and defence consultant Dr Zoran Ćirić argued otherwise. Ćirić said that amphetamine addiction had left the defendant close to being unable to control his actions, and that he had acted in a state of fear and rage. The defence also claimed that Dabetić tried to dispose of evidence after the killing because, as a gay man, he was afraid of going to prison.
Dr Kecman replied that addiction is not the same as mental illness, which is defined by hallucinations and delusions. She said that the defendant was in a state of anger at the time of the killing, while fear was not recorded, though such states often overlap.
Part of the testimony dealt with the relationship between the defendant and Milivojev, which one expert described as turbulent. Prosecutor Siniša Zorić objected to this line of questioning. “It is evident that the defence is trying to shift responsibility onto the victim,” he said, adding that the defence’s claims rest solely on the defendant’s own account, which he is not obliged to make truthfully, and that they lead to the degradation of the victim.
The killing of Noa Milivojev in 2023 shook Serbia’s LGBT+ community and became one of the defining cases of violence against trans people in the country. Gay-serbia.com will follow the closing arguments and the verdict.
Source: tanjug.rs, telegraf.rs. English adaptation: gay-serbia.com.