Former Minister of Health Budimir Šegrt said that Tiziano Masu, Honorary Consul of Malta in Montenegro, told him during a conversation over coffee in a bar in Podgorica that the company Patriot Defense Group will provide security services to the Democratic Front during and after the elections in October 2016. .
He testified today in the continuation of the trial of those accused of attempted terrorism on the day of the parliamentary elections, and then answered the questions of the special prosecutor, the defense attorney and the court.
"Mr. Tiziano Masu invited me to see you. We met in Podgorica and drank coffee. Masu told me that he is friends with the people who have a personal security company, Patriot Defense Group, that their headquarters is in Florida, and that the director of that company is his friend, and that he consulted him about whether to accept a job in Montenegro. . He said that there were several calls from an opposition party from Montenegro, which asked for a favor, which consisted in the fact that they assumed that the current government would lose the elections, and that they would not hand over power peacefully, and that they were asking for the support of Patriot Defense Group make evacuation plans. They were former CIA agents and operatives. He also told me that he suggested to his friend not to accept the job, because he is a friend of Montenegro. I figured that was information that needed to be passed on. I was a member of the government at the time and I passed it on to Duško Marković, the deputy prime minister for the political system," said Šegrt.
He added that Marković did not ask him anything about it, but only listened. Regarding the events of October 16, 2016 and the subsequent arrests, Šegrt stated that he learned about it from the media.
Lawyer Radonja Drakulović believes that from Šegrt's testimony it can be concluded that the security of Montenegro was not threatened on October 16.
Lawyer Dušan Radosavljević then suggested that Duško Marković, the current Prime Minister of Montenegro, be heard as a witness.
"Mr. Markovic is the person to whom the Apprentice passed the information. We have a whole chain of information that changes with each subsequent interaction. We had the information that Joseph Assad allegedly passed on to Brian Scott. Then we have something that is not his statement, but an FBI officer's report. We have the hearing of Brian Scott who tells us what was the subject of that conversation. He forwarded that information to Titian Massu, who changes the essential content of the information he received from Brian Scott, who was heard here as a witness. The apprentice today tells what he heard from Titian Massu, which is not the same as what Tiziano Masu told before this court. After that, that information is passed on to Marković. It is necessary for Marković to say what exactly he heard from Šegrt," said Radosavljević.
Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić said that he would leave it to the court to decide.
"As far as we are concerned, we have proven this fact beyond reasonable doubt. If the court thinks more is needed, or you just go ahead and decide," said Katnić.
After a review of the records on the crossing of the state border by Aron Shaviv, Joseph Asad, Joram Frig and Viktor Emanuel Richardson was made at the trial, Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić commented.
He stated that Shaviv entered Montenegro for the first time on July 26, 2016, and that by November of that year he had stayed in our country 14 times.
"His stays were short, two or three days at most. He came to Montenegro on September 25, the day before Saša Sinđelić's departure for Moscow, and he left Montenegro on September 29 and went to Belgrade, a few days before Šišmakov's arrival. He comes three times during October, and on election day. He left Montenegro the day after the election," noted Katnić.
During the hearing, lawyer Nikola Bulatović said that it is not allowed to hear the former prime minister and the current president of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović.
"On the other hand, we are hearing 14 witnesses at the request of the prosecution, who have nothing to do with the indictment".
He said that "more than 300 pieces of evidence were presented at the request of the prosecution, and counting the calls and messages, that's more than 300.000, maybe even more than 500.000 pieces of evidence."
"Counting the evidence proposed by the defense, less than 10 of them were presented. A special example is the way of questioning the associate (Saša) Sinđelić and the expert witness Predrag Boljević, in which a hundred questions of the defense were rejected. The questioning of the former Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, is also not allowed," he said. is Bulatović.
He also requested the impeachment of the president of the High Court, Boris Savić, but his request, as well as the request for the impeachment of the judicial panel and the president of the panel, were rejected.
The trial continues tomorrow.
Bonus video:
