The family of Petr Lazović, with three properties worth 1,139.289 euros and 100.000 euros in cash, guarantees to the High Court in Podgorica that the arrested secret agent will not escape if his detention is terminated.
Yesterday, Lazović's defense attorney, lawyer Borivoje Đukanović, sent the proposal for bail to that court.
To the higher court in Podgorica, Zoran Lazović pledged the family's residential building with an auxiliary building and an urbanized plot of land, the market value of which, according to the assessment report of September 16, is EUR 426.000, for the freedom of his son Petar.
"And the defendant's own brother, Marko Lazović, gives bail - real estate...the market value of which, according to the valuation report dated September 15, 9, is 2022 euros...Furthermore, the defendant's uncle, Dejan Lazović, gives bail - a family residential building. ..whose market value is EUR 245.000 according to the valuation report dated September 14, 9. The aforementioned persons provide surety in the entire amount of the estimated market value of the real estate in question - EUR 2022, as a guarantee that after his release, the defendant Petar Lazović will not run away, hide, or in any other way be negatively affected until the end of the criminal proceedings. on the course and outcome of criminal proceedings. In addition to the aforementioned real estate, the accused's father, Zoran Lazović, also deposits the sum of EUR 468.289 as surety," the proposal for bail reads.
Lawyer Đukanović told Vijesti that the defense is a categorical point of view, that there are no elementary conditions for detention on the basis of the risk of escape: "That was pointed out decisively in the proposal for determining bail".
"The defense reasonably expects that the High Court in Podgorica will unconditionally preserve its integrity in the judicial system, despite the media's insinuating and unscrupulous attacks on the defendant Petar Lazović and his family, and indirectly on the judicial institutions. At the same time, the subjects of such media harangue in the most direct way grossly violate the fundamental principle of criminal - procedural law - the presumption of innocence", it is written in the proposal for determining bail.
As for the court proceedings themselves, in the case of an indictment, it will have its epilogue before the competent court, after all the proposed evidence has been presented and properly evaluated," said Đukanović.
Attorney Đukanović points out that the court has a strict legal obligation to ensure that a more severe measure is not applied, if the same purpose can be achieved with a milder measure:
"Which clearly indicates that when it is assessed that there is a risk of flight (although this was wrongly assessed by the courts), the procedural purpose of ensuring the presence of the accused can be achieved with bail".
In the proposal for setting bail, Đukanović also cited the Court of Appeals, which, ruling on the appeals of the accused Lazović's defense attorneys, "in its decision of September 8, derogated from the existence of grounds for detention from Art. 175 paragraph 1 item 2 of the CPC.
"Therefore, the reasons cited by the first-instance court as a basis for extending the detention of those accused on the basis of detention from Art. 175 paragraph 1 item 2 of the CPC cannot, according to the order of this court, be considered as concrete circumstances that justify the extension of custody on this detention basis. According to the judgment of this court, the above-mentioned reasons are insufficient and do not have such force to justify the extension of the detention of the accused on the said grounds of detention. The fact that the grounds for detention from Art. 175 para. 1 point 2 of the CPC does not stand in relation to the defendants Petar Lazović and Radovan Pantović, for the previously mentioned reasons, it has no influence on a different decision of this court...", it is written in the decision of the Court of Appeal.
Lawyer Đukanović assessed that the Supreme Court in its decision of September 21 "decisively indicated the absence of another detention basis".
"In the course of the proceedings so far, the non-trial panel of that court, as well as the Appellate Court of Montenegro, have obviously acted illegally, because identical and stereotypical reasons were given in the decisions on the extension of custody, as well as in the decision of the investigating judge, without elaborating on any a new reason for which the extension of detention is necessary, and consequently the legal standards contained in the decisions of the European Court, as well as the relevant judicial practice, which was specifically pointed out by the defense, were grossly ignored. There is no objective reason to suggest that the release of the defendant would prevent the effective completion of the proceedings in this criminal case," wrote Đukanović in the proposal for setting bail.
Lazović was arrested on July 18 on suspicion of being part of a criminal group also responsible for international cocaine smuggling.
A day later, on the order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), Radovan Pantović from Mojkov was also arrested on suspicion of being part of the same clan.
They are suspected of being part of a criminal group formed by Radoje Zvicer, whose members include Duško Roganović, Ljubo Milović, Radoje Živković, Nikola Spasojević and Milan Vujotić.
In the files of the SDT, it is written that in the second half of 2020, Lazović and Milović became members of the criminal organization formed by Zvicer - one as an ANB officer working in the Police Directorate, and the other as an UP officer.
"And in order to realize the criminal plan, they accepted to carry out the orders and instructions of the organizer of the criminal organization, the defendant Zvicer Radoj, which were transmitted to them directly or through other members of the criminal organization to follow the members of the opposing criminal organization for whom the organizer had determined to take their lives and to they inform the organizer and other members of the criminal organization about it", the SDT states.
Special prosecutor Zoran Vučinić states in the documents that Lazović and Milović accepted Zvicer's order to carry out criminal acts of drug and weapon smuggling by themselves and with other members of the criminal organization, and that the secret agent was abusing his official position.
The case against the so-called Swiss group was reopened at the beginning of May, by order of the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović.
Four months earlier, special prosecutor Saša Čađenović, analyzing the same evidence on the basis of which Petar Lazović was arrested and the others are being sought, assessed that there are no elements of a criminal offense for which prosecution is undertaken ex officio.
The former chief special prosecutor Milivoje Katnić indirectly told "Vijesta" earlier that Lazović was on an undercover mission when he took photos and corresponded with members of the Kavaka criminal clan and exchanged information and weapons with them.
Lazović is labeled by EUROPOL as a member of the organized crime group "Kavčani".
"He will not be tempted to run away"
In the bail proposal, Đukanović wrote that Lazović, taking into account his family status, human and professional profile, as well as his awareness of the gravity and significance of the criminal offenses charged against him, "certainly would not even be tempted to run away. ".
He also claims that Lazović duly responded to the prosecutor's call every time, "even to a phone call", adding that these circumstances, which refer to the personality of the defendant, are of indisputable character.
"The defendant knew that criminal proceedings had been initiated against him, he could have escaped unhindered, which he had never imagined. It is unprecedented in judicial practice that a person who is in possession of the knowledge that he will be inculpated and who has manifested his determination not to run away in the most reliable way, is ordered and extended detention with reference to the grounds for detention from Article 175 paragraph 1 item 1 - danger of escape, as the aforementioned courts acted in an impermissibly illegal manner", assessed Đukanović.
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