First footage of "Barber of Malca" since his arrest: Trial for the crime that shook Serbia begins

The preparatory hearing ahead of the start of the trial of Ninoslav Jovanovic, better known as "the Barber of Malca," who abducted and abused a 12-year-old girl, M.K., from the village of Suvo Do, begins today before the Higher Court in Nis.

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Three vehicles of the Ministry of Justice entered the yard of the Higher Court a few minutes before 10 o'clock. They parked one behind the other and obscured the view of journalists inside the yard. With high security measures, the Barber of Malca was led in through the second floor, where the preparatory hearing will be held. Journalists were barred from entering the court building.

Photo: Telegraf/D.K.

Ninoslav Jovanovic (46) is facing justice today for the third time in his life, due to similar crimes committed against children. At exactly 10 o'clock, he will enter the courtroom of the Higher Court in Nis again to answer for what he did to the 12-year-old girl he abducted on December 20 last year in Brzi Brod.

The girl went through a nine-day torment ​​until she was found in the village of Pasjaca, while the maniac went on to hide until January 5, when he was arrested in the village of Malca.

The law envisages a prison sentence for Jovanovic from 10 years to life in prison, and it is up to Judge Tamara Savic to assess what sentence the infamous Barber of Malca deserves.

What could save Jovanovic from long, maybe even life imprisonment, would be proof that he is mentally ill, something that psychiatric experts will declare themselves about.

Although the content of the expert examination performed in a prison hospital in Belgrade is unknown, in accordance with the rule on the secrecy of the investigation - it would be a miracle if the result deviated from the findings during the previous two court proceedings, which were produced by top psychiatrists. And they determined that Jovanovic knows well what he is doing, and that he is not driven to sadistic abuse of children by an illness, but by sexual perversion.

(D.K.)