The investigating judge of the Basic Court, Miladin Pejović, ordered detention for up to 30 days to the arrested financial director of Kombinat aluminum Podgorica (KAP), Dmitri Potrubač, after almost three hours of questioning.
After the interrogation, Potrubač was taken to the Investigation Prison in Spuz.
Bjelopolje police arrested Potrubač, a Russian citizen, on Wednesday morning, on suspicion of irregularities in the company's operations. The Police Administration announced that Potrubač was arrested due to reasonable suspicion that he had committed the criminal offense of aggravated theft, and later it turned out that he was charged with the scandalous theft of electricity from the European interconnection for the purposes of KAP.
Potrubač's car at the border crossing where he was arrested (Photo: Jadranka Ćetković)
During the several-hour hearing in the building of the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Potrubač denied that he authorized the theft of electricity to the detriment of the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System (CGES) and pointed out that there was an internal agreement that CGES, for the needs of KAP, without any contract on the supply of that company, from February 22 to May 25, withdraws the missing amount of electricity from the European interconnection.
The arrest of Potrubač was strongly reacted to by his employer, the EnPlus Group, which assessed that the Government was driving away foreign investors and announced a lawsuit in domestic and foreign courts.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced that it was "deeply concerned" about Potrubač's arrest and asked the Montenegrin authorities to allow the staff of the Russian embassy to visit the arrested person, whose physical condition they assessed as alarming.
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