President of the trial panel, judge Zoran Radovic, refused bail in the amount of 250.000 euros offered by the defense for the termination of custody of the former director of the Real Estate Administration Dragan Kovačević.
This was confirmed to Vijesti by the independent consultant for public relations of that court Marija Raković.
With the presentation of the defense, the trial of Kovačević and the other defendants that they are members of a criminal organization, which he formed due to, allegedly, the appropriation of valuable parcels of state land in the Morski Dobr zone, recently began in that court.
Kovačević recently denied in court that he formed a criminal organization, that is, that he abused his position in state bodies. He then said that he had worked to protect state property all his working life.
He was arrested in December 2020, after the SDT completed the investigation following the report of Aleksandar Gazivoda, whose co-ownership of the villa in Tivat, which he built with Kovačević, was transferred to his name without his knowledge. Danko Kovačević, the son of the former director of the Real Estate Administration.
He escaped after the acting special prosecutor at the time "forgot" to extend his detention. He appeared in the courtroom almost a year and a half later, when he was arrested.
"I reject all counts of the indictment. Through my work, I fought against the illegal occupation of state-owned land. "I have never formed a criminal organization in my life, and in 2011 I had neither the will nor the desire to form any criminal organization," Kovačević said.
Answering the questions of the defense counsel, the lawyer Mitra Mugoša, the defendant explained the procedure for the registration of illegally built buildings in the real estate register and said that in case of registration of the building owned by his son Danka Kovačević nothing was done illegally.
"Registration of natural and legal persons in the cadastre is done on the basis of a request, in accordance with Article 84 of the Law on State Survey and Real Estate Cadastre. That decision becomes legally binding when the parties receive the decision and if no one complains about that act. However, if an appeal is filed, it will be decided by the Ministry of Finance as a second instance authority. There is a possibility of starting proceedings before the administrative court and finally an extraordinary legal remedy before the Supreme Court", Kovačević said.
He added that the second-instance authority has the possibility to decide on the merits of a specific case based on a specific request.
He denied that he had in any way illegally influenced the official of the Tivat cadastre Anu Lakićević Grdinić - how he will finish a subject.
"The only thing that I suggested to her in writing is to start a case as soon as possible if a party complains about the length of the procedure," said the defendant.
He also denied the allegations of the indictment - that it was over Aleksandar Boljević tried to extort part of the built real estate in Tivat from Aleksandar Gazivoda.
"I have never encouraged anyone in my life to intimidate anyone. I am 66 years old, and my upbringing does not allow me to do that," said the accused.
In addition to Kovačević, the accused are Ana Lakićević Grdinić, Krsto Pavićević, Danilo Jovanovic, Danko Kovačević, Sanja Popovic, Aleksandar Boljević, as well as a legal entity, the company "Geo&Arch".
The defendants are charged with abuse of official position, abuse of official position in business operations, extortion, extortion by aiding and abetting, illegal occupation of land, inducement to certify untrue content, falsification of documents, evasion of taxes and contributions.
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