In the High Court in Podgorica, the first-instance verdict is scheduled for Friday, June 11 Srdjan Popoviću from Banja Luka, who was tried in absentia for murder Goran Đuričković On October 27, 2015, on the promenade in Budva.
The verdict will be pronounced by a panel presided over by a judge Vesna Mostrokol.
According to the indictment, the defendant fired the shots from a loophole in the walls of Budva's Old Town.
In the closing speech, the senior state prosecutor Zoran Vučinić he proposed to the court to punish the defendant according to the law.
"According to the prosecution's assessment, the material evidence conducted during the proceedings clearly and unequivocally links the defendant Srđan Popović to the commission of the crime. And from the DNA expert examination, which was carried out after the indisputable DNA profile of the defendant was obtained from the Republic of Austria after his arrest in that country, it follows that the biological traces of the defendant were isolated in the rifle pit - the place from which the projectiles were fired at Đuričković. Both at the position of the loophole from which the victim was shot, as well as at the shell casings found within the loophole. In this particular case, it is about direct contact," said the prosecutor in his closing speech.
He added that the reliable conclusion that the defendant Popović is the perpetrator of the criminal act of murder is also indicated by the fact that a burning scooter with the remains of a blue and white traffic sign was found at the described location, i.e. in a hard-to-see place in the bay of the sea, immediately after the crime was committed.
"The characteristics of which match in everything with another part of the same traffic sign that was found in the service station Dusan Radaković", the prosecutor stated.
He said that the testimony of this witness indicates that, in the period before the murder of Đuričković, he had several telephone and personal contacts with a person who spoke a dialect from the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a buyer, from where the defendant Popović comes from, in connection with the purchase and sale of the scooter in question for water.
Defendant Popović, lawyers Nikola Boskovic i Zoran Celebic claim that there is no evidence that their client committed a criminal offense - murder.
They suggested that the court acquit him, respecting the principle of "leniency to the accused".
"As one of the irrefutable evidences, the indictment cites the statement of the witness Dušan Radaković, who sold the scooter, allegedly used in the crime. The indictment decisively states that the defendant is that buyer. At the hearing held on September 18, 2019, the witness was shown three photographs. Witness Radaković stated that the person in the photos does not look like the person he sold the scooter to. Forensic genetics expert dr Sandra Kovačević stated at the main hearing that there are no analyzes that can determine the time of deposition of the biological trace. So it is not known when these biological traces were created. Kovačević said that the sample was removed from all three shells with a single strip and not from each shell individually. So, we don't even know if there was a DNA trace on all three shells or only on one, because it is possible, as confirmed by the expert, that during sampling, the DNA material could have been transferred from one shell to the others. In the report, it is stated that the result of the analysis of the DNA profile found shows that the defendant is one of the two donors of biological material," said lawyer Čelebić.
He added that it is not possible to reliably determine where the shots were fired on October 27, 2015.
Lawyer Bošković stated that the photographs of the shell casings were unprofessionally taken during the investigation: "So it is not known which shell casings they are or where they were".
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