The County Court in Osijek has sentenced former police officer Marko Smažil to 15 years in prison for the murder of 21-year-old Osijek student Mihaela Berak. The verdict is not yet final.
The court revised the factual description of the indictment, reclassifying the charge from direct to indirect intent. According to the delivered verdict, Smažil was aware that a round was in the chamber and that the barrel was pointed at Mihaela Berak’s head, after which he fired the shot that killed her. The court determined that he had accepted the consequences of his actions. It was not established that the motive was jealousy, nor that the act constituted a criminal offence committed through negligence.
Mihaela Berak was killed by a gunshot in Smažil’s apartment on 20 September 2023. Smažil appeared before the court again after the High Court annulled the previous non-final verdict from March 2025, in which he had been sentenced to 18 years in prison. The higher court annulled the previous verdict following appeals by Smažil and his defence counsel, Dražen Šarb, citing incorrectly established and incomplete factual findings.
The High Court ruled that the first-instance court had not sufficiently weighed the defence’s arguments and evidence, unlike the prosecution’s evidence, to which it had given full weight. The higher court also noted that the first-instance court had not sufficiently analysed all evidence, including the defendant’s testimony and forensic reports on the circumstances of the shooting.
The former police officer had initially stated, in his first contacts with his father, the 112 emergency service, and senior police officers, that the girl had shot herself. After being arrested that same night, he confessed to the police, and subsequently to the state prosecutor, that he had fired the fatal shot. He has since maintained that there was no intent, and that the incident was accidental.
Police initially accepted these statements and filed charges for a serious criminal offence against public safety. However, the State Attorney’s Office in Osijek reclassified the charge, indicting Smažil for murder. Prosecutor Jasmina Bošnjak maintained this classification in the retrial, asserting that Smažil had killed Mihaela with intent, driven by jealousy. This stance was supported by Davor Ćavar, the legal representative for the Berak family.
