I was first confronted with the consequences of bringing private conversations to the public almost thirty years ago, in April 1994. It is hard to believe today how terrible it looked, because the (post)war-incitement atmosphere cannot be transferred to paper. I nearly ended up in the spring beech trees under the Vezir Bridge.
The Liberal Alliance decided a little earlier to form a shadow government. And I, too rebellious, decided to leave the party because of a character who was promoted by Slavko Perović to become a minister.
I only knew the worst about that obscure person, but I also knew from experience that it was futile to convey that to the LSCG leader. He trusted everyone who wanted to help, especially if they were young and ambitious, to the extent that it bordered on naivety.
- Batali, Rale Pale, you are always too strict, if you were to sign the application forms, we wouldn't have even a hundred members - that's how he cut off my objections on personnel matters at the start, on other topics he mostly respected them.
Only once, and thanks to his older brother and my brother-in-law Ratko, did I manage to prevent a personnel increase when the Service tried to insert its journalist into Liberal.
- Choose Kume, him or me - I followed Ratko's advice. And of course she was right, long ago that cadre became famous as the striking fist of the former regime.
So that it doesn't seem like I'm adding importance to myself, apart from my column in Liberal, I wasn't a factor in LSCG. Just a long-time friend and member of his leader's extended family.
I still have to brag a little, while there are still living witnesses. Out of a total of ten party cadres whose ascension I opposed - four and a half ended already in 1998 with Milo Đukanović...
* * *
On the day I left LSCG, I sent two or three sentences to Cetinje by fax. Šture, so that the officials who monitor the correspondence with the leader would not guess why I am leaving the party.
Unfortunately, Slavko did not remember that at that time I was still at work in Pobjeda and dialed the number from the fax machine.
If I don't want to recount what that shooting looked like from both sides, it is enough detail that in anger I said the name of the person because of whom I was leaving LSCG.
The next day, on the double edition of the most widely circulated Belgrade newspaper, our conversation was retold so that only the technical information was true - the name of the person, plus ours, plus the resignation.
All the rest were bare lies, mostly known. The Service has been circulating them for years, and I have made fun of the lies and the Service in Liberal and wherever I get the chance.
It was just idiotic that I was leaving the party because Slavko Perović was defending Dubrovnik in order to protect the palace on Stradun that was given to him by Tuđman...
* * *
Rushing furiously to deal with the correspondents who sent it to the newsrooms, I didn't even notice that Politika behaved professionally, even overestimating my importance...
- The closest associate and friend of the LSCG leader, a journalist, etc... left the party due to opposition to some personnel decisions - that's roughly what it said at the bottom of the page, along with two or three more basic sentences.
I found this out only after I screamed at my colleague Dragomir Bećirović from the door of the correspondence office, with whom I had been friends for a decade and mostly argued about Serbian-Montenegrin relations, to our mutual satisfaction.
He showed me the original Služba information from the fax and explained that, despite its attractiveness, he didn't want to use a single quote because he knew that I couldn't even think, let alone say, such abominations...
It was only a few years later, from another colleague, that I learned that the Service's note was not written on the basis of wiretapping, the source was unfortunately an oral informant from Pobjeda.
* * *
Let them record, at least they will publish the truth, that's what I said years after the first scandal that the Service prepared for me. Until the communication of my friend Goran Rodić with colleagues and clients became public...
Give us back the trained Bolshevik spies, I wanted to scream from the top of my head that hot - not only meteorological but also political - July 2017 when I entered his office. Previously freed from movable property - laptops, phones and documents. At the behest of a well-trained Chief Special Prosecutor.
The special effort he put into butchering Rodić's phone conversations with young associates, Marija Radulović and Siniša Gazivoda, resonated that day among at least half a million readers of Montenegrin portals and television viewers...
The masses do not go into details, nor do they use logic when they are offered games instead of bread, no matter how monstrous they may be. I quote:
The role of Rodić: It turns out that the well-known lawyer from Podgorica was involved in the case of attempted terrorism from the very beginning, as early as October 20, 2016.
Of course it does not follow, the lawyer was involved in the defense of some suspects and not in the attempt of terrorism.
But this is Montenegro, who cares about the facts, it's important that the spitting starts. I know him, he defended war criminals, the firing of "commentators" began, whose intelligence does not prevent them from imagining trials without the accused's right to defense.
A review of communications with lawyer Milan Petrović from Niš shows that Rodić shared legal advice and suggestions for the defense.
Well, it won't help the prosecutor who claims that Serbs from Belgrade came to kill Serbs in Podgorica if the Serbian party wins the elections...
GR: You're not here, take a picture of the new order, I need it because I'm going to be on TV on Sunday.
(The Ministry of Justice submits the Order to expand the investigation in the case against the suspects.)
GR: Received, thank you. Did Ristić and Bogićević act according to the description only on the territory of Serbia?
MP: That's why they refused to place Ristic in extradition custody.
GR: OK.
MP: When do you go on TV and which show?
GR: RTCG, Okvrik at 20.00:XNUMX p.m.
I'm giving up, the prosecutor's wisdom is putting pressure on me, according to which preparation for a public performance has become a serious crime.
The chief special prosecutor's personal revenge against the lawyer, due to the smashing of the so-called of the coup even before it reached the courtroom, has not (yet) been included in the indictment.
* * *
Justice is partially attainable even for a judiciary that is trapped like this, the court said its opinion about the fake coup d'état and the false indictment against three lawyers for organizing a criminal group.
Unfortunately, lies from the portal cannot be deleted. How difficult it is to deal with their consequences, only those who were exposed to the public experience of the regime and its servants know.
So as not to spoil it by retelling, in the end just a few quotes from Marija Radulović's address from the courtroom where no normal person would send her except as a lawyer:
In front of you today is not only a young lawyer whose career was stopped before it really started, but also a girl, Marija Radulović, whose name, dignity and reputation have been exposed to public condemnation for two and a half years.
Why? Because the Chief Special Prosecutor decided so!
The fact that the word was allegedly used in SDT's official announcements means nothing to us, to our families, to friends, and I'm afraid not to the clients either.
For many newspaper readers, television viewers, radio listeners, visitors to portals, Facebook and other social networks, we will remain - criminals.
Despite this, I will not give up my profession. By the way, the only correct detail from the entire indictment is the one in which the prosecutor says that "I had the role of translator in those cases".
What kind of justice is it if someone is declared a member of a criminal organization because of a solid translation? Does this mean that - if I improve my Italian to a specialist level - some subsequent special prosecutor should promote me to the head of an organized criminal group?!
* * *
So, because the chief special prosecutor is still irreplaceable.
Same as supreme.
And the one even more supreme.
And that we have a little...
PS TV Jusovača has turned into the Wailing Wall these days. Instead, after three decades of false recordings that poisoned the public, everyone in it covers their ears - the media fortress of the former regime seeks the protection of the same public because of the boomerang that has returned. Unfortunately, only from Democrats. True recording, but with a big delay!
Bonus video:
