There is no money that can compensate me for the three and a half years that I innocently spent in detention, Duško Šarić said yesterday in the Basic Court in Pljevlja, who is asking the state to pay him 200.000 euros in compensation for unjustified detention.
The verdict in this case will be delivered by judge Marina Jelovac on December 28.
Šarić's lawyer, Miodrag Golubović, said that they stand by the request to pay them compensation with legal interest from the day of the judgment until payment, while the protector of property and legal interests, Fahra Ličina, said that the compensation request was set too high.
"The court should take into account the length of detention and the fact that he was not found guilty and that before he was detained, he was not the owner of all the legal entities mentioned in the lawsuit," Ličina said.
During his testimony, Šarić explained that he was in custody from November 15, 2010 to April 23, 2014, which, he said, had serious consequences on his health.
"While I was sitting with my friends in the bar '4. rooms' in Pljevlja, around 18 pm on November 15, 2010, three plainclothes inspectors approached my desk and told me to go with them to the Pljevlja District Court. I asked why, they told me that some colleagues from Podgorica should come. When I got out, I noticed five police cars and a large number of policemen. I got into a vehicle that took me to CB. I waited in the corridor for two hours until Inspector Petar Gujić came. I asked why I was detained, and he told me that they received an order from Podgorica to detain me. I sat with him and some of his colleagues in that office until midnight, while they were waiting for orders from Podgorica. I was not interrogated during that time. Around midnight, they received a call and ordered my detention because of something that happened in Italy, which I had nothing to do with," said Šarić.
He claims that after that they detained him in a room in which there was no heating.
The next day around seven o'clock, he said, he asked to be taken to the doctor because of a sore throat, but the police did not allow him to do so, and they brought the doctor to the police station.
"That doctor gave me an injection on a table in an office in front of several police officers," said Šarić.
On the same day, he was transferred to Bijelo Polje, where he gave a statement in front of the special prosecutor, and then he was taken to CB Bijelo Polje, where he spent the night.
"The next day at around 19:10, I was taken to the investigating judge who ordered my detention. I thought that I was detained because of Italy, but in fact it was not like that, I was reported as having committed a criminal offense in Pljevlja. They placed me in a solitary cell about 24 square meters in size, which was under video surveillance and under bright lights 20 hours a day. There were two beds in the room, a table next to which was a toilet bowl. The cell was in the basement, the windows were chained. Air could enter only through the hole in the door. At first I thought it was a regular procedure, but I soon realized that I would be in solitary confinement for a longer time. I could spend XNUMX minutes a day walking," said Šarić.
He says that he spent nine and a half months in solitary confinement, although he unsuccessfully appealed to the head and director of the prison to transfer him to a "normal room"...
"There was a lot of humidity in the room and I started to feel bad. It was only when I was examined by the prison doctor that it turned out that I had pneumonia and I was transferred to a normal room with three other prisoners. This room was also under video surveillance, but at least the lights were turned off in the evening. We also had a TV in the room. I stayed in that room until April 23, 2014," said Šarić.
He stated that he had the right to a visit once a week, and that food was brought to him from the restaurant, which he paid for himself, which, he claims, he was entitled to by law.
He said that after spending two years in detention, his eyesight had weakened due to the bright light he was exposed to 24 hours a day in solitary confinement.
"That's why I still have to wear glasses today, even though I never had any problems with my eyesight until I was detained. I gained 20 kilograms due to nervousness. My wife Svetlana, with whom I have two children, left me after two and a half years of detention. "The thing that hit me the most was when they didn't want to enroll my son in preschool in Belgrade because the other parents rebelled and said that they wouldn't let their children go to school with the child of a criminal," said Šarić.
He claims that he was especially "killed" by the headlines in the newspapers, because so many untruths were told about him.
He also pointed out that after his arrest, his mother also got sick, and that many friends turned their backs on him.
"When they released me, they want to return to me again," said Saric.
He said that the time he spent in custody and everything that happened in connection with it, left a deep impact on his mental state - because he was charged with a crime that carried a penalty of up to 40 years in prison.
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