Even after five and a half months, the Ministry of Justice of Serbia has not answered its Montenegrin colleagues whether they will extradite the fugitive and legally convicted head of the Budva criminal group, former high-ranking official of the Democratic Party of Socialists Svetozar Marović.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, Vladimir Leposavic, to "Vijesti".
At the end of 2020, the government renewed its request to Serbia to extradite Marović, and the request was then sent by DHL. Before that request, the previous Government of Duško Marković sent two emergencies.
"Since that call, which is the third in a row, we have no news. Of course, this is an issue that the public is interested in. I think that this case needs to be resolved on a political, higher level, between the heads of state and government. The Ministry is still waiting for the answer from the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, and as soon as that answer is on our desk in the near future, we will share it with the public," said Leposavic to "Vijesta".
Marović has been in Belgrade for more than four and a half years, where, according to his legal representatives, he is being treated. The former second man of the then ruling DPS was arrested in December 2015 on suspicion of leading an organized criminal group that damaged the coffers of the Municipality of Budva for tens of millions of euros. He was handcuffed by order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office. Marović left the Spuška prison in May 2016, after he pleaded guilty and concluded an agreement, which was then verified by the High Court.
After that, he crossed the border unhindered and went to Belgrade, where "every trace of him is lost", so Montenegro issued a warrant in 2017.
One of the most politically influential people from Budva, based on the agreement he made with the Special Prosecutor's Office, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. Although he agreed to pay one million euros into the state budget and donate 100 to humanitarian causes, he never did so, so his prison sentence was increased by a year.
The statute of limitations for that one-year sentence begins already this month, and the sentence of three years and nine months in October 2026.
Although social networks have been flooded with photos of Svetozar Marović from Belgrade restaurants for years, the local authorities have not delivered him.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, recently stated that the extradition of Marović is complicated.
"We have relations that are now complicated (about extraditions). We requested the extradition of several persons who are extremely important to us in the investigations of organized crime. You wouldn't believe how complicated it is," said Vučić at the end of March.
Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović said recently that they never received a concrete answer to the question of why Serbia refuses to extradite Marović.
He assessed that there is room for improving cooperation with Serbia, and that one of the problems is that official Belgrade does not want to extradite to Montenegro a former DPS man.
"That's one stumbling block, maybe there are more, but it's a pretty visible problem. I have no understanding of the explanation why this man is not brought to justice. You yourself know that on several occasions people from the top of the Serbian government were asked about the process surrounding Marović, but I never heard from them, even in public, any explanation that would have any greater meaning," said Abazović. He assessed that it is very easy to arrest Marović, if there is a will.
And while Serbia is still silent on requests for the extradition of Marović, the Municipality of Budva cannot collect the million in compensation that the head of the Budva criminal group has committed to pay into the local coffers.
The sale of a part of Marović's ancestral property, which the Municipality of Budva was supposed to collect at least 142 thousand euros and thereby settle part of the remaining debt of 868 thousand, has been postponed several times.
The request that Serbia should extradite Marović as soon as possible was sent from the rostrum of the last session of the Budva parliament by the Democratic councilors, saying that the former vice-president of the DPS should be extradited because he is the creator of the "wastewater" corruption scandal, which caused the Municipality of Budva threatens to collect 100 million euros from the German company WTE.
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