Yesterday, the trial of Dalibor Ljekočević, a police inspector accused of extorting testimony from Benjamin Mugoša in May 2020 as part of the investigation into the bomb attacks on Duško Golubović's house and the Grand bar, continued before the Basic Court in Podgorica.
"Three people were tortured in the police for the same purpose of giving a false statement - Benjamin Mugoša, Marko Boljević and Jovan Grujičić. At yesterday's trial, Srđan Korać, head of the criminal police station for the suppression of blood offenses and domestic violence in the Podgorica Security Center, testified, his immediate superior defendant Ljekočević, and police inspector Danilo Grbović, who searched Mugoša's apartment, and then brought him to CB Podgorica where, according to the indictment, he was tortured," the Action for Human Rights (HRA) announced.
Korać stated that in May 2020, the police officers of CB Podgorica worked to shed light on the bomb attacks on the house of security service officer Duško Golubović and the bar "Grand".
"We received information that Benjamin Mugoša was involved in the execution of these criminal acts, about which we informed the prosecutor Snežana Šišević. Then we were ordered to search Mugoša's house, after which he was brought to the official premises of CB Podgorica. On that occasion, he was polygraph tested and, according to my knowledge, he refused to cooperate with the police. Rather, he did not want to make any statement. The prosecutor then ordered his detention. I learned about the allegations of torture only later, from the media," he said, according to HRA.
Korać, they add, stated that he did not remember meeting the accused Ljekočević in the official premises of CB Podgorica on the critical day, nor that he communicated with him. He does not even remember who was in charge of the search that day, but claims that there is a written record of it. However, he explained that there is no written track when it comes to the distribution of jobs, because it is determined directly or at collegiums every day - depending on the availability of police officers, HRA points out.
Also, Korać did not even know who was observing the locations for the search that day, because no written document was allegedly drawn up about that either. He said that he did not see Benjamin Mugoša that day either, whom he knew from before.
Another witness, a colleague of the defendant, inspector Danilo Grbović, said that on May 27, 2020, he participated in the search of Benjamin Mugoša's apartment. "As it turned out that Mugoša was no longer living in the family home, but privately with his wife, Grbović had to reach the new location through operational information, after which he carried out the observation of the place himself. After the search, Grbović and his colleagues took Mugoša to the CB Podgorica and took him to a polygraph test. The test lasted only 10-15 minutes, after which Mugoša was returned to the official premises," the statement said.
To a special question from the court, whether the witness saw the defendant Dalibor Ljekočević that day, and who observed the original location where Mugoša's house was to be searched, Grbović replied that he neither saw nor met Ljekočević at any time that day. , and that the observation of Benjamin Mugoša's family house was not necessary because they already knew its location.
"In this part, Grbović's testimony differs from the defendant's defense, who claimed that on May 27, 2020, 'just before 6 a.m., he was at the location where Benjamin Mugoša's family house is located' for the purpose of observing it, according to the order he received from Srdjan Korać", notes HRA.
At the next hearing, the hearing of three police inspectors who, the NGO adds, "cooperated with Ljekočević on a critical day": Nemanja Vujošević, Ljubisav Striković and Radoman Vujičić.
"Mugoš reported that he was tortured by several police officers that day, but so far he only managed to recognize Dalibor Ljekočević," concludes Action for Human Rights, which follows the trial and advocates, as they say, for an effective investigation and punishment of torture in in accordance with international standards that bind Montenegro.
Bonus video:
