The king of the escape, the most wanted Montenegrin fugitive, the king of heroin... these are just some of the media nicknames of the most famous resident of Rožaj, Safet Kalić, which have become a thing of the past.
Yesterday, after almost seven years, he returned to his hometown as a free citizen after he was released from a German prison, but also after the Montenegrin courts acquitted him of charges that together with his wife Amina and brother Mersudin, he laundered almost eight million euros acquired by selling drugs.
At the moment, it is not known exactly whether Germany suspended the proceedings against him for drug smuggling in 1994 or whether he was sentenced to the minimum sentence he served in custody. His lawyer didn't want to reveal that either.
"I can confirm that my client Kalić Safet has traveled to Montenegro, he is in Rožaje, and I can say that he was acquitted in the proceedings before the Bjelo Polje High Court and that he is an acquitted innocent man who is currently in Montenegro Gori," said the lawyer of the Kalić family, Dragoljub Đukanović.
He left Montenegro at the end of July 2011, when his closest relatives - his wife and brother - were arrested on suspicion of money laundering by order of the prosecution. Competent authorities then issue a warrant for him, but he manages to skillfully hide for the next three years. Falling in October 2015 in Austria.
"Based on intensive communication between the police of Montenegro and Austria, and in accordance with the NCB Interpol Podgorica warrant and information that Kalić Safet will visit Vienna on the specified day at 15.30:XNUMX p.m., the search unit of the Federal Criminal Service of Austria in cooperation with the Austrian special team for arrests, acting according to the international warrant officers of the NCB Interpol Podgorica located and arrested the Montenegrin citizen Kalić Safet," said the then Minister of the Interior Raško Konjević.
During the three years of hiding, Kalić often changed passports and identity. Kalić's fake passport was also found during his arrest.
"At the time of his deprivation of liberty, he used a Kosovo identification document, passport number...issued in the name of Murik Rifat, born in 1970 in the town of Lipnja Kosovo," Konjević announced at the time.
His arrest was the reason for the Bijelo Polje High Court to postpone the sentencing in the proceedings that had been initiated, pending his extradition. When the answer arrived from the German competent authorities, who were also looking for him, that there was a possibility that Kalić could be temporarily extradited to Montenegro so that he would no longer be tried in absentia, the Bijelo Polje court decided to end the proceedings without him. In December of the following year, Kaliće was acquitted of all charges.
"I can also say that the acquittal confirmed what the family, Safet Kalić, and I and all of us who defended claimed that this was a completely innocent man and that there was no room for any accusation," says lawyer Đukanović.
This was later confirmed by the judges of the Supreme Court, so now, due to the bad indictment, the citizens will pay substantial compensation to Kalić.
Kalić came into the public eye for the first time during the "saber" operation in 2003, when the Serbian police named him as one of the main heroin suppliers of the Zemun clan. After that, videos from Kalić's wedding came to life on the Internet, when representatives of Serbian crime and the Montenegrin state security service were among the numerous guests.
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