Montenegro acquits suspect in editor's killing

PODGORICA, Dec 28 (Reuters) A Montenegrin court has acquitted the sole identified suspect in the 2004 killing of the editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Dan.

The ruling prompted a walkout of deputies from five opposition parties in Montenegro's parliament.

Damir Mandic had been charged with several other unidentified persons as a co-perpetrator in the drive-by shooting of editor Dusko Jovanovic.

The judge said there was no evidence to prove Mandic had been in the car from which Jovanovic was shot. Mandic had insisted he was innocent.

''Dusko Jovanovic has been killed again today and freedom and love of truth has been sentenced to life imprisonment,'' said Andrija Mandic (no relation) of the Serb National Party yesterday.

He said the ruling amounted to a gagging of the free press.

The Dan newspaper is close to the opposition Socialist People's Party which was an ally of late Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. It described the ruling as scandalous.

''This decision shows that Montenegro is not a state ruled by law,'' the paper said in a statement.

The late editor's wife said she would appeal to international legal bodies against the judgment, but did not specify which.

In addition to the murder of Jovanovic, the killings of two Serb journalists -- Slavko Curuvija in 1999 and Milan Pantic in 2001 -- remain unsolved.

Reuters SBA VP0423