Two years after the wounding of "Vijesti" journalist Olivera Lakić, it is still not known who shot her in front of the building where she lives, and in the investigation files there is no mention of who the perpetrators were and what was the motive for the cowardly attack.
The prosecutor's investigation has not been completed even after more than 14 months, and the legal regular deadline is half a year, which is why the prosecutors asked to be allowed to break the deadline because, allegedly, it is a voluminous and demanding case.
Although the investigation is being handled by a team of as many as five prosecutors from the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, the persons the journalist wrote about in investigative texts, who in the last decade repeatedly threatened her, intimidated her family members, and physically attacked her, have not been heard to date. ..
However, they will soon have to make a decision - whether they will file an indictment against the alleged criminal association of Filip Bešović for wounding a journalist, or whether they will terminate the investigation in one of the most significant cases.
The journalist, who is engaged in investigative work, was wounded on May 8, 2018 at around 21 p.m. in front of the entrance of the building where she lives, when an unknown person approached her from behind and fired a bullet into her right lower leg at close range.
The Police Directorate and the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica linked the case of the investigation into the wounding of the journalist to the murder of restaurateur Miodrag Kruščić, who was killed on May 21, 2018, claiming that they have evidence that the same criminal association is responsible for both crimes.
Lawyer Dalibor Tomović, who represents the journalist Lakić, told "Vijesta" that he is concerned that after two years since the attack on the journalist Lakić and more than a year since the opening of the investigation - the initiation of criminal proceedings, the perpetrators and perpetrators of the attack have not been found.
"It is not encouraging that the investigation into the attack on Olivera Lakić has not yet been completed after more than 14 months, although the regular legal deadline is six months," said Tomović.
Senior State Prosecutor Lepa Medenica replied to "Vijesta" that the prosecutor's office will soon make a decision, adding that the addition of expertise for digital evidence, computer, mobile and video forensics has arrived...
"In the case against several persons, regarding the murder of MK and the wounding of the Vijesti OL journalist, the investigation is ongoing, during which a large number of persons were heard as witnesses. Through the petition, international legal assistance was requested from the competent judicial authorities of the Republic of Kosovo and orders were issued for numerous expert reports, as well as expert reports, and supplementary reports from January 27, 1 by an expert for digital evidence, computer, mobile and video forensics. In the meantime, that finding has been submitted to this prosecutor's office, while the request has not yet been acted upon. After a comprehensive analysis of all the data and evidence collected so far, this prosecution will make a decision," said Medenica.
In the summer of 2018, the police and the prosecutor's office announced that they discovered a group organized by Bešović and nine other members, who, they said, were believed to have procured and hidden weapons and explosives, mobile and encrypted phones, but also rented them. štek apartments"... During the investigation, but also during the search of the suspect group's apartments, numerous pieces of evidence were found, as well as an encrypted phone, which, for now, is allegedly the key link by which the police and the prosecution connected two cases with the same criminal association.
For this reason, the opinion of the digital forensics expert Balša Savić should be of the utmost importance during the prosecution's decision, because his findings should clarify whether the encrypted phone was recorded after the murder of Kruščić, and during the escape of the main suspect Mario Milošević, during the taxi ride from Ćemovsko polje to " stek apartment" in 4. jula Street, identical to the device with the same IMEI number registered near the journalist's building on the night when she was shot.
The prosecution has over 1.500 pages in the joint case, but a small number of evidence and expert reports in the files refer to the details surrounding the wounding of the journalist Lakić.
The files also contain an interesting piece of evidence - Milošević's fingerprint, which the police found on a copy of the printed edition of "Vijesti" from May 10, 2018, where it was written about the attack on Lakić, and which was found in one of the "stellar apartments". in which the members of the group were hiding. In addition to Milošević, the newspaper also registered the forensic trace of another person, whose material did not match the fingerprint database of the Montenegrin police, which is why the help of the police from the region was requested.
The Prosecutor's Office conducted the investigation for nine months, and then on February 19, 2019, just two days before the arrival of EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Podgorica, a joint conference of the UP and the Prosecutor's Office was organized.
The head of the Podgorica CB Milovan Pavićević, in front of the prosecutors, announced that the organizer Filip Bešović allegedly followed but also shot the journalist Lakić.
A day later, the Higher Prosecutor's Office submitted a request to conduct an investigation against - Filip Bešović, Marij Milošević, Filip Knežević, Goran Rakočević, Dejan Vukašinović, Luka Bulatović, Mijail Stojanović, Marinko Rajković and Sanja Božović, but in no part was it explicitly stated that it was the organizer of the association who shot the journalist.
"The wounding of the journalist was carried out by Filip Bešović himself or through one of the members of the criminal association, who used a mobile phone for encrypted communication... which the injured Lakić followed," the prosecutor's order reads.
Attorney Tomović said that after more than 14 months it turned out that what the police and the prosecution announced at the conference in February last year was not true.
"They informed the public that they had shed light on the case and repeated it on July 25, 7, but it turned out that this was not true. At the joint conference on February 2019, 19, information was presented, which will turn out to be incorrect, that the person who shot Olivera Lakić was found. None of the authorities acknowledged this omission, nor apologized to journalist Lakić," said Tomović.
In the wording of the prosecution, it is claimed that the criminal association aimed to commit several criminal acts, as well as to cause serious physical injury to Lakić, as it was a legally qualified crime at the time, which during the investigation was conducted as attempted murder.
The detentions of the members of the group were extended for months, and in the meantime, many were sentenced to prison terms because of weapons and explosive materials, which the police found in several rented apartments at the Old Airport, Tuško put, and that is why most of them are in Spuz.
The defendant Bešović said through his lawyer that he had nothing to do with the wounding of the journalist and that the police and the prosecutor's office were "pacifying the public" in this way...
The same was claimed by Mario Milošević during the hearing at the prosecution...
A team of five prosecutors from the Higher State Prosecutor's Office must soon make a decision on whether to indict the criminal association, which more than 14 months ago they claimed was behind the attack on Vijesti journalist Olivera Lakić"...
The Montenegrin government has been repeatedly criticized from many international and domestic addresses because the investigation into the attempted murder of a Vijesti journalist is stalling.
Three months after the journalist was wounded, Veselin Veljović was re-appointed to the position of police director, whose head of security, Milenko Rabrenović, was tried for threats to Olivera Lakić's daughter in February 2011, following a series of articles in "Vijesti" about the illegal production and smuggling of cigarettes. from the "Tara" factory in Mojkovac.
That, at least a controversial subject, pointed to the weakness of the system.
During the proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica, it was established that Rabrenović's son and two other members of his family used the phone number, which during January and February 2011 "traveled" with Veljović's driver, and that the same card was used in the device from which Lakić's daughter was threatened.
All this was not disputed by the judge Larisa Mijušković Stamatović, who acquitted Rabrenović due to lack of evidence.
Although it was determined that only he and two members of his family could have sent those threats, the court acquitted him, referring to the changed opinion of expert witness Predrag Boljević.
In his written opinion, the expert first claimed that Rabrenović was the user of the phone from which the threat was made, only to change his opinion at the main trial, claiming that he had previously "explained too harshly"...
The trial of Rabrenović was also marked by the unusual interest of the president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, and the then head of the criminal police in Budva, Siniša Stojković, in the case on the part of the competent prosecutors.
The Prosecutor's Office decided to prosecute Stojković for the criminal offense of unlawful influence, but the trial never took place.
After the indictment against Rabrenović, Lakićeva labeled Veljović as the one who ordered the threats, which he denied in court.
Due to the monstrous threats, another trial was conducted - Milan Grgurević from Danilovgrad falsely reported that he was the person who allegedly threatened, and that he threw the phones at Zeta.
Due to the false reporting, the judge of the Basic Court in Podgorica, Željka Jovović, sentenced him twice to one year in prison, but later he was acquitted by judge Goran Đuković. The "Vijesti" journalist became a frequent target of attacks after she investigated and wrote in early 2011 whether fake brands of cigarettes were produced, stored and smuggled in the "Tara" factory, as well as in the warehouse in Dona Gorica. She wrote in the texts that people from the police and ANB are involved in that smuggling business.
The first threats came at the beginning of 2011 from Slavko Musić, an employee of the Mojkovac factory, who was later sentenced to four months in prison for endangering security.
Ivan Bušković also received a low prison sentence, who was sentenced to nine months in prison, because on March 7, 2012, he hit the journalist Lakić who was returning home from work in front of the building. The mastermind behind that attack was never discovered.
Journalist Olivera Lakić was also the winner of the International Women of Courage Award last year, which is awarded by the US State Department. The award is given to women from all over the world who, despite great personal risk, are an example of outstanding courage and leadership in the promotion of human rights, women's equality and social progress.
Prosecutors were not interested in the texts
Lawyer Dalibor Tomović said that in this case, the passive attitude of the prosecution towards the victim of the attack is also worrying.
"Only after more than six months from the opening of the investigation, in September 2019, the Higher Prosecutor's Office allowed Olivera Lakić to view the case files, and after several personal appeals to the Higher Prosecutor's Office, to the urgency of the lawyer, and in a final and personal address to the Supreme State Prosecutor. For more than a year (May 15, 5 to July 2018, 4), Olivera Lakić was not officially invited by the prosecution to attend any procedural action, even though a large number of persons in the status of suspects, defendants and witnesses had been heard until then. Tomovic said.
The journalist was officially heard for the first time since the initiation of the criminal proceedings only on November 6 last year, when the team of five prosecutors had already completed almost all the hearings, expert reports and evidentiary actions.
"The team was practically excluded from the investigation, as a phase of the criminal proceedings," the lawyer said.
Lakić testified several times before the prosecutors - the first time during the reconnaissance phase on May 14 and 15, 2018, where she gave detailed information about the people she was writing about, as well as those from the state system who - draw targets for her.
The prosecutor's team sent the journalist a new summons for the hearing only the following summer - on July 4 of the following year, when she did not want to testify because she had not officially received the case files at that time.
During the audio-visual hearing on November 6, 2019, Lakić mentioned, among other things, in front of the prosecutor that a few days after she was wounded, she mentioned to the prosecutor Suzana Milić the people who intimidated and threatened her during the last decade because of the texts she wrote about, but that it was not entered into the files at the time, nor was the prosecution hearing them during this investigation.
That those names were not in the files was pointed out by the Commission for Monitoring the Actions of the Competent Authorities in Investigations of Cases of Threats and Violence Against Journalists and Attacks on Media Property, which in the reporting period from May 23, 2018 to February 23, 2019, stated that there is no trace in the documentation of the prosecution that any of the persons the journalist wrote about, and whom she mentioned in the first statement, were heard.
Prosecutors Vesna Jovićević, Suzana Milić, Maja Jovanović, Miloš Šoškić and Tatjana Begović were hired as a five-member team, which for the first time in the history of the prosecution, in this way, jointly deals with the investigation of a case.
The police requested the help of the FBI, there is no such thing in the prosecution's files
The police administration announced in the first months of the investigation that they requested the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to which they sent files from the investigation through the representative office in Sarajevo.
The FBI confirmed to Vijesti at the end of 2018 that they are providing assistance to the Montenegrin police in this case, but did not comment on the investigation.
Two years after the journalist was injured, "Vijesti" sent questions to the Police Directorate, the Chief of Police and his assistant for criminal investigation, but they did not answer about the details of the investigation or whether they had help from the FBI.
Prosecutor Lepa Medenica, in her response to "Vijesta", repeated that the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica "did not cooperate with the FBI in this case, nor does the case contain information about that cooperation, which does not mean that the Police Directorate did not cooperate."
Bonus video:
