Judge Vesna Pean did not have the right to judge, because before that she was twice in the non-trial panel for determining custody in this case.
This, among other things, was pointed out by journalist Jovo Martinović at the session of the Appellate Council where appeals were considered against the verdict of the Podgorica High Court, by which the investigative journalist was convicted in the first instance for participating in international drug trafficking.
Judges Zoran Smolović, Seka Žižić and Dragiša Rašović will decide within a month on the verdict of the High Court.
In January of this year, Martinović was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, on the charge that he used his acquaintances from the journalistic profession to connect drug smugglers, while the journalist claims that he was on a journalistic assignment that required him to contact people from the criminal milieu.
With this verdict, Duško Martinović was sentenced to six years and three months in prison as the organizer of the group.
In addition to the two Martinovićs, as members of a criminal organization, Igor Vušurović and Vaso Perović were also sentenced to two years and eight, and Jonuz Hadžibeti to two years and four months in prison. Branka Stanišić received a year and three months for helping the group, and Marko Šaković and Milan Marović received a year in prison.
The journalist, in his appeal against the verdict, pointed out that the decision was based on the replacement of theses, the reasoning of the verdict is confused and contradictory, in certain elements it offends common sense and intelligence, and the verdict shows personal intolerance towards his profession and him personally. It is added that the court and the prosecution did not offer evidence that Duško Martinović recruited him, nor that the journalist had a motive or promised material benefit from such work.
In the appeal, documentary films and French, American, and German television shows about jewel thieves and arms smuggling that Martinović filmed with the defendants, which the High Court deemed unimportant and refused to include in evidence, are given as evidence for inspection. It is added that the secret surveillance measures are another proof that he communicated with them for the sake of journalistic work, and not for the purpose of procuring marijuana, which the first-instance panel ignored...
The journalist has already spent 14 months in custody.
He is the winner of the "Peter Meckler" international journalistic award for courageous and ethical reporting, and during his long career he collaborated with numerous Western media, including the BBC and the Financial Times.
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